Here’s the latest in a case we’ve been following. After a loss at the Eighth Circuit, the property owners have filed a cert petition.

This is the case where court concluded that the city’s issuance of a closure order to reVamped after the business ended up on the city’s “blighted list” was not a regulatory taking. The city had issued citations for various code violations, sent compliance orders, and was apparently reacting to a fire on the premises.
Continue Reading New Cert Petition: Invoking “Police Power” Alone Doesn’t Avoid Takings

Skynet knows we’re in Milwaukee. So it flashes this story on our screen: remember that eminent domain case our of Milwaukee you participated in 16 years ago? (Skynet is scary and has a long memory.) Yes, we do. A just compensation issue. “Undivided fee” rule nonsense. Oh yes, we remember. …
Continue Reading Eminent Domain: Owner “Lost its case and lost all of its money”

Here’s the latest in a case out of a storied New York City neighborhood that we have been following.

Today, our shop filed this cert petition, asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review a decision from the New York Court of Appeals (dun-dun) which held that New York City’s charging a massive fee…

Happy Birthday to Hugo Grotius, author of the treatise “De Jure Belli et Pacis” (1625) — perhaps fittingly books about war and peace — which first used the phrase “eminent domain” to describe the sovereign power to forcibly acquire private property for public use and upon provision of compensation.
Continue Reading Happy 442d Birthday To Hugo Grotius, Who Coined The Term “Eminent Domain”

We know that courts are loathe to set aside settlement agreements. But when a judicial opinion starts off this way and you are the defendant, you know you are likely in trouble:

Stephanie Walker, an elderly widow with limited income, was left suddenly homeless when her Charlotte home was flooded with raw sewage from…

Here’s a recent cert petition involving an allegation that the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare), through what is called a “reinsurance” program, requires group health plans “to fork over $10 billion in plan assets.” Pet. at 1. The Federal Circuit held that this wasn’t a taking, merely an “obligation to pay money” and thus the plaintiffs lacked a private property interest. Money isn’t property, right? …
Continue Reading New Cert Petition: Obamacare Reinsurance Requirement Is A Taking

Here’s Pacific Legal Foundation’s motion asking the Virginia Supreme Court to allow us to file a brief amicus curiae which urges the court to grant a discretionary appeal and review this Petition for Appeal by a Norfolk, Virginia homeowner who, according to the trial court, suffered a taking but was prevented from presenting all evidence of just compensation, including the “residue damage” required in partial takings by the Virginia Constitution. …
Continue Reading Virginia Supreme Court Amicus: There’s A Difference Between Constitutional “Damagings” And Severance (Residue) Damages In Takings Just Compensation

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?