Last week, the California Supreme Court heard oral arguments in California Building Industry Assn. v. City of San Jose, No. S212072, the case which challenges San Jose’s “inclusionary housing” requirement.
The Court of Appeal held that under rational basis review (and not heightend scrutiny) San Jose’s affordable housing exaction might survive because it was…
Here’s one that just rolled in, from the Iowa Supreme Court. In Clarke County Reservoir Comm’n v. Edwin D. & Deloris A. Robins Revocable Trust, No. 14-0774 (Apr. 10, 2015), the court held that the Commission did not have the power of eminent domain because several of its members were private actors. The court…
In AFT Michigan v. State of Michigan, No. 148748 (Apr. 8, 2015), the Michigan Supreme Court upheld a state statute which mandated a 3% reduction in public school employees’ salaries (to fund a failing school employee retiree health care system), and concluded it was not a taking because it was a voluntary giving by…
Earlier, we posted the cert petition in Hillcrest Property, LLP v. Pasco County, No. 12-846 (cert. petition filed Jan. 15, 2015), which asks the Supreme Court to review the Eleventh Circuit’s decision throwing out Hillcrest’s facial substantive due process challenge to the county’s “Right of Way Preservation Ordinance.” The ordinance allows the county to land…
Williamson County gives everyone grief, and if you needed any more proof, here it is.
In A Forever Recovery, Inc. v. Township of Pennfield, No. 13-2657 (Apr. 2, 2015), an unpublished opinion from the Sixth Circuit, the court upheld the district court’s award of attorneys’ fees and costs to a property owner who…
What we learned from the Federal Circuit’s opinion in Shinnecock Indian Nation v. United States, No.14-5015 (Apr. 7, 2015):
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Two stories to read, in tandem:
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We like dictionaries. A couple of them have treasured spots on our bookshelf. But we’re not all that keen on courts relying upon dictionaries to define statutory terms, because our experience is that one word could have many meanings, and just because one dictionary defines a word a certain way doesn’t rule out other meanings.
A few years ago, in Gallenthin Realty Development, Inc. v Borough of Paulsboro, 191 N.J. 344 (2007), the New Jersey Supreme Court held that in order to target property for redevelopment as “blighted,” the government must show that it is in such condition that it “negatively affects surrounding areas” by promoting conditions that can develop…
Today is Good Friday, an official state holiday in Hawaii, so we’re reposting our annual recounting of how it came to be that the State commemorates the date of the crucifixion, and how that squares with the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
Turns out that it doesn’t really. It’s just coincidence that the “spring…
