property rights

Hawaii has a unique status among American states. It is the only state that once was a separate sovereign nation, the Kingdom of Hawaii and then its short-lived successor, the Republic of Hawaii. Yes, we know that Texas may lay claim to the whole six-flags thing, so maybe the more accurate statement would be that Hawaii is the only state that was a sovereign kingdom, ruled by royalty.
Continue Reading If A King Must Comply With “Every Form And Particular” In Eminent Domain, Then Today’s Condemnors Also Surely Must

In an historic win for property owners in California, in Shear Dev. Co., LLC v. California Coastal Comm’n, No. S2284378 (Apr. 23, 2026), the unanimous California Supreme Court held that the Coastal Commission–which we can say without exaggeration is the most unaccountable and out-of-control agency in the nation–overstepped its authority when it purported to override a municipal government’s approval of a building permit. [Barista’s note: our firm represents the prevailing property owner in the case, and the head of our Coastal Property Rights group, Jeremy Talcott is lead counsel.]…
Continue Reading California Supreme Court Reins In The Most Unaccountable Agency In The Nation, The California Coastal Commission

In a state like Vermont that is heavily dependent on tourism, it shouldn’t be all that surprising that one of the most prominent issues is the policy and legal fight over short-term rentals. In 2022, Burlington, the state’s largest city, tightened up its short-term rental regulations to prohibit “nonhost-occupied short-term rentals in Burlington with…

Check this out a newly-filed complaint, filed in a New York federal court, challenging New York’s ban on hydraulic fracking as a taking. Our firm represents the plaintiffs, so we won’t be saying much here. But we will point out that this one is very much like the O.G. modern takings case, Pennsylvania Coal Co. v. Mahon, 260 U.S. 393 (1922).
Continue Reading New Complaint: NY’s Fracking Ban Is A Penn Coal v. Mahon Taking

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

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”

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

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

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!”