My Cato colleague Roger Pilon explains the significance of the Supreme Court’s ruling yesterday in Arkansas Game & Fish Commission v. United States, in which the federal government flooded a property owner’s land but resisted demands for compensation on the grounds that the “taking” of property was temporary, since the flooding would subside. Earlier here.
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eminent domain,
Supreme Court
- Decline Medicare benefits, lose your Social Security? Tell it to SCOTUS [Trevor Burrus and Kathleen Hunker, Cato]
- “Castle” protections against official home intrusion aren’t forfeited just because you’re a renter [Ilya Shapiro and Sophie Cole, Cato]
- Was Hitler a pirate? Answer could shape SCOTUS Kiobel decision [Alison Frankel] Inside the effort to rein in the Alien Tort Statute [Reuters] Editorials urge limiting ATS [WaPo, WSJ] More: Bainbridge, Kenneth Anderson, roundtable at Opinio Juris, Ted Frank.
- Major takings case (Arkansas Game & Fish Commission v. U.S.) argued at SCOTUS [Ilya Somin, Damon Root, Federalist Society with Richard Epstein, Gideon Kanner] Court also decides to hear important regulatory takings case, St. Johns River Waste Management District v. Koontz [Somin]
- On the supposedly pro-business Supreme Court [Stephen Richer, Forbes; Ted Frank]
- Previews of the Court term [Adam Freedman, Point of Law, Federalist Society/C-SPAN, Above the Law]
- Are we nearing a “constitutional moment”? [Michael Greve with responses from William Galston and William Voegeli, Law and Liberty]
Tagged as:
Alien Tort Claims Act,
eminent domain,
Supreme Court
- Virginia voters overwhelmingly voted to curtail state’s eminent domain powers [Ilya Somin]
- “The most misunderstood Supreme Court decision of the last thirty years, Citizens United, made absolutely no difference in this election. Which is no surprise to anyone who read the case. Let’s hope we stop seeing attacks on free speech based on faulty premises.” [Ted Frank; Alison Frankel, Reuters; John Samples, Cato]
- “A Quick Round-Up on Education Policy and the 2012 Elections” [Andrew Coulson, Cato]
- By 58-42 margin, voters in liberal Montgomery County, Md. curtail county’s obligation to bargain with police union over policy changes with effects on working conditions [Gazette, earlier here, etc.]
- “Double down on social issues” advice wouldn’t have put Romney over the top, to put it mildly [Hans Bader] Medieval obstetrics expert Akin pulled less than 40 percent against Missouri’s unpopular McCaskill [Andrew Stuttaford, Secular Right]
- Entrenchment of union rights in state constitution wasn’t the only bad idea that Michigan voters rejected: they also turned thumbs down on unionization of home health aides and mandates for utility use of renewables [Conn Carroll]
- Louisiana voters strengthened protection for individual gun rights in their state constitution [Volokh]
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eminent domain,
guns,
labor unions,
Louisiana,
Michigan,
Mitt Romney,
police,
Virginia
- “Property Rights Panel at the Cato Institute’s Constitution Day” [Ilya Somin] Related: “Sackett v. EPA and the Due Process Deficit in Environmental Law” [Jonathan Adler]
- Feds’ fishy forfeiture attack on Massachusetts scallopman [Ron Arnold, Examiner]
- California politicos seek crackdown on lenders’ supposed “retaliation” against municipalities considering seizing mortgages by eminent domain: “You Can’t Use Voluntary Action to Try to Stop Government Coercion” [Coyote; earlier here, here, here] Will Congress step in to shut down the grab? [Kevin Funnell]
- “The government of Honduras has signed a deal with private investors for the construction of three privately run cities with their own legal and tax systems.” [A Thousand Nations, Todd Zywicki, FedSoc Blog]
- A Philadelphia business owner decides to clean up and improve an adjacent, neglected city-owned lot, and soon has sad cause for regret [Philly Law Blog]
- Georgia claimant: “Hi, I own your land although I have no evidence of that” [Lowering the Bar, update]
- “Blight” condemnation could stymie hopes for historic preservation in Denver [Castle Coalition]
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Denver,
eminent domain,
Georgia,
Massachusetts,
Philadelphia,
property law
- Coming up next Tuesday, Sept. 18, in Washington: Cato Constitution Day. Be there! [schedule]
- In the unlikely event Congress enacts federal limits on state malpractice suits, Prof. Randy Barnett says he expects to help with a court challenge [Andrew Cochran, earlier]
- Michael Uhlmann reviews Michael Greve’s The Upside-Down Constitution, and Greve responds [Claremont, Liberty and Law] A New Hampshire story: our “cooperative federalism” can’t replace a simple bridge [Mark Steyn]
- Broad discretionary search of citizens’ private papers? FISA strains Fourth Amendment [Julian Sanchez]
- Paging Akhil Amar: Romney on Meet the Press says “I am as conservative as the constitution” [Tucson Citizen] Randy Barnett vs. Amar on progressive constitutionalism [WSJ, Volokh]
- “Constitutional Places: The Carolene Products Factory That Straddled The Border Between Missouri and Oklahoma, But Did Not Engage In Interstate Commerce” [Josh Blackman, with picture and diagram of filled-milk plant]
- “More thoughts on Justice Sutherland” [Magliocca, ConcurOp]
- Seize first, compensate later? Cato files amicus in raisin-farmer takings case [Ilya Shapiro]
- “What Were They Thinking: The Supreme Court in Revue 2011″ [John Elwood & Eric White, Green Bag, PDF]
Tagged as:
eminent domain,
Fourth Amendment,
New Hampshire,
Supreme Court
- Town of Gold Bar, Wash. (pop. 2,100) brought to brink of bankruptcy by multiple lawsuits following political feuds; “We are going broke winning lawsuits,” says mayor [Monroe Monitor via ABA Journal]
- “No one in Youngstown Ohio has a Swiss bank account…except maybe that big new Swiss employer in town?” [Matt Welch, earlier] William McGurn: FATCA and the IRS’s reach abroad [WSJ via TaxProf, earlier here, here] Politicians and lawyers demand “improvements” to IRS bounty-paid-informant program, but what if anything they improve may depend on your point of view [TaxProf, earlier]
- A human rights professor endorses a new model of residential facility that comes with names like “Freedom Place.” But what’s that on the door — could it be a lock to prevent escape? [Maggie McNeill] Romney spokesman says he’ll smite smut, Gov. Gary Johnson takes a more libertarian view [Daily Caller]
- New Mark Herrmann book on in-house lawyering [Victoria Pynchon, Scott Greenfield, Paul Karlsgodt]
- Mortgage eminent-domain seizure plan raises serious constitutional concerns [Andrew Grossman, earlier here, here]
- Central casting? Send over one “business basher,” please: Sidney Wolfe says $3 billion Glaxo settlement too lenient [CL&P, earlier]
- Ted Frank pre-vets the possibilities for Romney VP [PoL] Romney’s law and legal policy team [Brian Baxter, AmLaw Daily]
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eminent domain,
international human rights,
lawyers,
legal blogs,
Mitt Romney,
mortgages,
pharmaceuticals,
Switzerland,
taxes,
Ted Frank,
Washington state
- Prediction: Homeland Security to emerge as major regulatory agency prescribing security rules to private sector [Stewart Baker] Regulators fret: air travel’s gotten so safe it’s hard for us to justify new authority [Taranto via Instapundit] “Romney’s regulatory plan” [Penn RegBlog]
- Claim: frequent expert witness in Dallas court proceedings is “imposter” [PoliceMisconduct.net]
- “‘Temporary’ Takings That Cause Permanent Damage Still Require Just Compensation” [Ilya Shapiro, Cato]
- On the ObamaCare decision’s wild card, the ruling on “coercive” conditions on Medicaid grants under the Spending Clause [Mike McConnell, Ilya Somin] Ramesh Ponnuru argues that ruling is no victory for supporters of limited government [Bloomberg]
- D.C.’s historic Shaw neighborhood near Cato Institute narrowly escaped planners’ bulldozer [Greater Greater Washington, WaPo]
- Michelle Obama on the right track with an idea on occupational licensure but should take it farther [Mark Perry]
- Everyone’s a judicial critic: Auto-Correct proposes replacing “Posner” with “Poisoner.”
Tagged as:
aviation,
Cato Institute,
constitutional law,
Dallas,
eminent domain,
expert witnesses,
Mitt Romney,
ObamaCare,
regulation and its reform,
Richard Posner,
terrorism,
Washington D.C.
As everyone waits for the ObamaCare ruling…
- Justice Kennedy often votes with right half of Court on economic issues, left on social — if only there were a word for that [David Boaz]
- SCOTUS decisions on evidence, Indian law remind us of inadequacies of “red-blue” stereotype of Court divisions [Hans Bader]
- “Can the Government Destroy Property Values ‘Temporarily’ Without Compensation?” [Ilya Shapiro, Cato]
- New book on how a 1987 Supreme Court decision opened up Indian gaming [James Huffman reviews Ralph Rossum, LLL]
- “That’s Not Kosher: How Four Jewish Butchers Brought Down the First New Deal” [Steven Horwitz, The Freeman]
- Except for, like, not demanding damages or trial or things like that? Declaration of Independence described as “founding lawsuit.” [John Goldberg via TortsProf]
- New book reviews in Federalist Society “Engage”: Richard Epstein on John Inazu, Liberty’s Refuge: The Forgotten Freedom of Assembly, and Robert Gasaway on Michael Greve, The Upside-Down Constitution]
Tagged as:
eminent domain,
Indian tribes,
Supreme Court
- OSHA cracks down on a shooting range with punitive fines. A coming trend? [Kopel, earlier on David Michaels here, here, here, etc.] Gun control lobbying on the public dime, courtesy Mike Bloomberg & Co. [Ron Arnold, Examiner]
- Scheme to use eminent domain to seize underwater home mortgages advances [Future of Capitalism, Felix Salmon]
- One lawyer for every 257 Americans [Funnell]
- Posner knows it: court appointment of experts can head off hired-gun arms race [Josh Wright, Truth on the Market]
- New Canaan, Ct.: “Mom Arrested for Letting Her 13-year-old Babysit Siblings” [Lenore Skenazy, Free-Range Kids]
- John Stossel show on lawsuit abuse, warning labels and related topics;
- Phillies Phanatic: “The most-sued mascot in baseball is heading back to court” [Time, earlier]
Tagged as:
baseball,
eminent domain,
expert witnesses,
guns,
John Stossel,
mortgages,
OSHA,
Philadelphia,
Richard Posner
- Judge Edith Jones rules: 5th Circuit spanks judge who overturned result of anti-traffic-cam vote [The Newspaper, background]
- “UK Nanny State: Let’s Send Gamers To Rehab” [Nick Sibilla, Reason] “If Poker Is a Public Health Issue, What Isn’t?” [Jacob Sullum]
- Struggle Resolutely Against Misleaders of the People In Weather Broadcasts Everywhere! [TP; reactions from Tony Hake/Examiner, Geoff Fox, Andrew Revkin, Watts Up With That]
- Jury awards $178 million in bariatric-surgery case against Jacksonville hospital, sum greater than GDP of several small island nations [Florida Times-Union]
- Sikh sues Jay Leno over comparison of Romney vacation home to Golden Temple of Amritsar [Daily Mail]
- Redevelopment without prerequisite “blight” akin to Hittite sack of Babylon [Gideon Kanner]
- Convinced hospital broke naming promise, jury tells it to pay $1 million to country singer Garth Brooks [AP]
- “Dean of law bloggers” — why, thank you, sir [Hans Bader, CEI]
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accolades,
climate change,
eminent domain,
Fifth Circuit,
global warming,
hospitals,
India,
red light cameras,
videogames
- California’s Prop 65 and the numbness of overwarning [Tung Yin via Bainbridge]
- Time to kill off medical-method patents [Alex Tabarrok, Medical Progress Today]
- Spite decoration: “Gretna fence squabble continues in bitter fashion” [NOLA.com, Louisiana]
- “The Problem With Immigration Lawyers and How to Fix It” [Dzubow/Asylumist via Legal Ethics Forum]
- “Are NYC transit bus drivers prevented from calling police?” [Turkewitz]
- “Circumvention tourism” is travel intended to sidestep medical regulation [Glenn Cohen, Prawfs]
- Abolition of wasteful, arrogant California redevelopment agencies has Tim Cavanaugh ready to kiss a nurse in Times Square [Reason, similarly Gideon Kanner and Steven Greenhut]
Tagged as:
California,
eminent domain,
immigration law,
NYC,
patent quality,
Prop 65
It took three years of litigation, but Texas developer H. Walker Royall has finally ended his defamation suit against author Carla Main and publisher Encounter Books (which is also my publisher on Schools for Misrule). Main’s book Bulldozed had been critical of the use of eminent domain in land takeovers, and in particular of its use in a deal in Freeport, Texas. The case helped prompt the Texas legislature to enact stronger protections for defendants against so-called SLAPP suits, a development long overdue in some other states as well. [Roger Kimball, Houston Chronicle; Jacob Sullum; earlier]
Tagged as:
eminent domain,
libel slander and defamation
- High court tees up case on ObamaCare constitutionality, potentially one of the most significant in decades [Ilya Shapiro, Cato]
- “Andrew Sullivan Is Wrong About the Supreme Court and Guns” [Damon Root]
- Trade groups’ advocacy: judge quashes Tillery subpoena as chilling to free association [Madison County Record]
- Takings: “California’s Kafkaesque Rent Control Laws” [Richard Epstein] Things may be worse in China, though: “more than one attendee described Beijing as Kelo-on-steroids” [same]
- No, the federal government can’t find authority to overstep its otherwise delimited powers by entering into treaties calling for it to do so [Shapiro]
- Authors: U.S. Constitution is becoming less influential as model to foreign nations [Law/Versteeg via Zick, ConcurOp]
- Fight between strip-search lawyers leaves little to imagination [Kerr]
Tagged as:
constitutional law,
eminent domain,
First Amendment,
guns,
international law
Cato-intensive edition:
- David Bernstein’s Rehabilitating Lochner, recently praised by George Will, is part of Cato series challenging constitutional law myths [Roger Pilon, earlier; Bernstein's recommended-books list]
- Constitutional conservatism: the forgotten history [Johnathan O'Neill, Heritage] “Progressive originalism” a development to be welcomed, but faces uphill slog [Damon Root, Reason] Tim Lynch: constitution is too hard to amend ["Amending Article V", Tennessee Law Review] Toobin’s “startling reappraisal” of Clarence Thomas in The New Yorker [Walter Russell Mead]
- When it comes to abortion clinics, left and right swap usual positions on regulatory burdens [A. Barton Hinkle, Richmond Times-Dispatch] I’m quoted on courtroom battles over state anti-abortion enactments [Steve Weatherbe, National Catholic Register]
- Exhaustion of remedies: “Property Rights Are Not Second-Class Rights” [Ilya Shapiro, Cato at Liberty]
- Property ordinance in San Juan Capistrano bars Bible study groups and even regular bridge foursomes. Bill of Rights violation? [CBS-LA]
- For those in the D.C. area, a George Mason U. event Monday at 5: Roger Pilon (Cato) vs. Ed Whelan (Ethics and Public Policy Center) on judicial activism [Fed Soc]
Tagged as:
Cato Institute,
constitutional law,
eminent domain,
land use and zoning
- House Judiciary holds hearing on asbestos-claim fraud and abuse, with Prof. Brickman headlining [Main Justice, Legal NewsLine, WSJ law blog, PoL, Brickman testimony]
- Endangered species habitat in Nevada: “Elko County wants end to 15-year-old trout case” [AP]
- “Why is the Eastern District of Texas home to so many patent trolls?” [Ted Frank/PoL, more] Tech giants say multi-defendant patent suits place them at disadvantage [WSJ Law Blog] Plus: “Patent company has big case, no office” [John O'Brien, Legal NewsLine]
- Lawsuit settlement and the lizard brain [Popehat]
- “U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Looks Into Eminent Domain Abuses” [Kanner, Somin] U.K.: “Squatters could be good for us all, says judge in empty homes ruling” [Telegraph]
- Madison mob silences Roger Clegg at news conference where he releases new study of UW race bias [ABA Journal, Althouse]
- Life in Australia: “Another motorized-beer-cooler DUI” [Lowering the Bar]
Tagged as:
asbestos,
Australia,
Eastern District of Texas,
eminent domain,
endangered species,
Lester Brickman,
Nevada,
patent trolls,
settlement,
United Kingdom
