Check it out, the latest volume of the Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Journal is now available, both in print for those who subscribe, and online for those who prefer the pdf versions. The pieces include something property rights for everyone: academic property, Supreme Court property practice, Contracts Clause, Zoning and Land Use, and Fourth Amendment.
Continue Reading Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Journal Vol. 14 Now Available
Remember the Property Reserve case in which the California Supreme Court came up with a …. creative solution to the conundrum of precondemnation entries? In the latest chapter of that fight, in Department of Water Resource Cases, No. C103207 (Mar. 26, 2026), the Third Appellate District rejected the owner’s claim that to enter property there must be a project.No, held the court, the whole point of precondemnation entries is to see whether a project involving your property might be worthwhile.
Continue Reading Property Reserve Revisited: Project? We Don’t Need A Project To Do Precondemnation Entries
Here’s our annual missive on why today (this year, Friday, April 3, 2026), the doors to most Hawaii state, county, and city offices are locked. What’s so special about this Friday? Well, this is the day Hawaii celebrates Good Friday. Yes, Good Friday is an an official state-sanctioned holiday in the 808 area code. How did it come to be that the State commemorates the date of the crucifixion, and how does that square with the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
Continue Reading Today Is Hawaii’s Secular Good Friday State Holiday – What’s Up With That?
Yesterday (yes, April Fool’s Day), we returned to William and Mary Law School to help the student-run Real Estate Law Society wrap up its event year. The putative title of our talk was “Hot Topics in Property Law”, but we covered a wider range, including Dirt Law issues to be on the lookout for at the Supreme Court, a century of zoning, career paths in property law (litigation, transactional, academic, for example, and what the hiring market looks like), and some general musings.
Continue Reading William & Mary Law School’s Real Estate Law Society
Check this out. A new cert petition on an issue we think is a good one. Let’s just cut to the chase (you can read the petition for the background). Here are the Questions Presented: Whether an approved vesting tentative map which conferred a statutory vested right to finalize a subdivision upon substantial compliance with the conditions of approval is property protected by the Takings Clause?
Continue Reading New Cert Petition: Is A Vested Permit A Separate “Stick” Of Private Property?
When you think of “Vermont roads,” the first images that might come to mind are mountain byways, covered bridges, and “highways” that elsewhere might qualify as backroads. All the above is prelude, because it is here along I-95 south of White River Junction, that today’s story lay. Romaine Tenney was one of those classic Vermonters. He entered the pages of history more than fifty years ago when, in reaction to the taking of his farm for Interstate 91, he burned his house and farm buildings down, and shot himself. He had nowhere else to go.
Continue Reading Romaine Tenney Lives: “They Stole His Land and Gave Him No Choice!”
We’ve been holding on to this eminent domain necessity decision from the Vermont Supreme Court because we were scheduled to pay a visit to the Green Mountain State (more on that in a subsequent post), and we wanted to include some photos (photos are always good in an otherwise dry law blog post). Mongeon Bay Properties, LLC v. Town of Colchester, No. 25-AP-125 (Jan. 23, 2026), is an eminent domain case where the Town tried to condemn the property (shown above) which is part of a larger unsubdivided parcel owned by Mongeon on the shore of Malletts Bay (part of Lake Champlain). The court invalidated the taking, holding that the Town failed to prove the statutory elements of necessity.
Continue Reading Vermont And The Bare Necessities: Taking Was Unnecessary Because Town Didn’t Bother To Meet Statutory Requirements
In New York v. Commons West, LLC, No. CV-23-1255 (Mar. 5, 2026), the Appellate Division of New York’s Supreme Court (dun-dun) invalidated a New York statute that forbid property owners from considering a prospective tenant’s source of income when deciding to whom to rent a property. The legislature effectively required owners to “accept Section 8 vouchers and, as a condition of participating in that program, agree to allow search of their properties and records.” Slip op. at 5. The court held this violates the warrant requirement of the Fourth Amendment.
Continue Reading NY App Div: Requiring Property Owners To Accept Section 8 Tenants Violates Fourth Amendment
If this isn’t a word … it should be!
A newly-filed property rights cert petition worth watching. [Disclosure: this one is from our firm, so we won’t be commenting.] Here are the Questions Presented: “Whether Maine’s requirement that lobstermen place a GPS tracking device on their private fishing vessels and submit to 24/7 surveillance constitutes an unreasonable trespassory search in violation of the Fourth Amendment?”
Continue Reading New 4A Property Rights Cert Petition: Govt GPSing Your Boat Is Warrantless Search