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Why juries matter when you’re up against the government
Today, we filed an amicus brief, joined by our friends at Reason and American Civil Rights Union, urging the Supreme Court to grant Brott v. United States, a case about whether property owners are...
View ArticleWeekly litigation report—December 16, 2017
PLF supports property owners’ right to a jury in federal takings cases Code violations should not be a city’s no-appeal cash machine PLF announces appeal to illegal jaguar rule Coastal Commission...
View ArticleForbes highlights PLF brief to Supreme Court
Today, Forbes writer George Leef published an article on Brott v. United States, a case before the Supreme Court in which PLF participated as amicus. The Forbes piece discusses PLF’s brief and urges...
View ArticleKelo strikes again
One of the key protections enshrined by the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is the requirement that any exercise of eminent domain must be for a valid public use. Properly applied, the public...
View Article"They're bank robbers"
Author: Steven Gieseler The New York Daily News offers this update on the controversial Atlantic Yards eminent domain project, aimed at taking private property to build a Brooklyn arena for the New...
View ArticleFox News features PLF Supreme Court case
Author: Steven Gieseler Earlier this week, Fox News produced this report, and FoxNews.com ran this story, on the case of Florida property owner Gilbert Fornatora. PLF attorneys, as lead counsel in...
View ArticlePost-Kelo reform still blighted
Author: R. S. Radford In the 2009 volume of the Supreme Court Economic Review, Vanderbilt professor James W. Ely, Jr., takes a look at political responses to the Supreme Court’s horrendous decision in...
View ArticleHigh Court to Consider Government's Low Tactics
Author: Steven Gieseler That's the title of my column posted today on the American Thinker's website. The tactics in question are the subject of a petition to the United States Supreme Court, filed...
View ArticleDetroit's federally funded demolition project
Author: Daniel Himebaugh Detroit, a city laden with economic troubles, might soon become a hotbed of eminent domain litigation. Later this month, Mayor Dave Bing is set to announce the city's plans...
View ArticleSpeculating on the public dime: Burien is latest eminent domain loser
Author: Daniel Himebaugh The city of Burien, Washington is in the news this week because its "Town Square" condo project has run into serious financial difficulty. While the reporting on Town Square's...
View ArticleWashington's supreme court orders a landowner to sell his property to neighbors
Author: Brian T. Hodges They say that bad facts make bad law. Well, here’s a doozy. Noel Proctor and Ford and Christina Huntington purchased neighboring parcels in Southern Washington. The...
View ArticleThe continuing fight against eminent domain abuse
Author: Damien M. Schiff Last week, PLF filed an amicus brief in support of the property owners' petition for certiorari in the United States Supreme Court in Tuck-It-Away, Inc. v. New York State...
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Will robots rescue our constitution?
Author: Brian T. Hodges There has been much to do lately about Watson’s Jeopardy! victory over a couple of really smart humans. For those who have been … well … hiking in Greenland or something,...
View ArticlePLF's Robert Thomas to speak at eminent domain/redevelopment seminar
Robert Thomas, PLF’s man in Hawaii, and blogger at inversecondemnation.com, will be joining the lineup of December 1 Strafford live phone/web seminar on Eminent Domain: Redevelopment Challenges for...
View ArticleHouse of Representatives passes eminent domain reform bill
After the infamous decision in Kelo v. New London, the fight over eminent domain abuse shifted primarily to states, many of which passed laws designed (or, at least, pretending) to restrict the power...
View ArticleWhat redevelopment has really accomplished in California
Our friends at the Castle Coalition have put together this video about redevelopment in California. It features, among others, Ahmad Mesdaq, who lost his San Diego cigar store to redevelopment...
View ArticleCelebrating a victory for property owners in California
This morning, I was among the speakers at the “final” meeting of Municipal Officials for Redevelopment Reform, an organization led for years by California Assemblyman Chris Norby to fight back against...
View ArticleResuscitating redevelopment in California
Columnist Dan Walters has been following recent bills introduced into the state legislature to resurrect redevelopment in California. As you may recall, late last year the California Supreme Court...
View ArticleCalifornia legislature sending help to farmers . . . by taking their property...
California Assembly Bill 823 will be heard next Monday in the state Assembly’s Natural Resources Committee. Since the bill will impose unconstitutional exactions on many if not all farmland...
View ArticleCalifornia city moves to seize underwater mortgages
The City of Richmond, in the San Francisco Bay Area, is moving ahead with a controversial plan to use eminent domain to acquire mortgage loans from the lenders who currently hold them, at significant...
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Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone
Supporters of property rights will no doubt remember the sad saga of Kelo v. New London. Kelo house before eminent domain In that case, the Supreme Court permitted the city to use its eminent domain...
View ArticleShould a city be able to use legislative tricks to acquire land cheaply?
The Constitution requires the government to pay just compensation when it seizes private property for public use. However, if the City of Perris has its way, cities will be allowed to pay less than...
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What's a Public Use? A soccer stadium? A casino?
Two cases in the news this week made me wonder if I read the Fifth Amendment differently than the rest of the country. The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution says “nor shall private property be taken...
View ArticleCity responds to PLF’s CA Supreme Court amicus brief in City of Perris v....
Recently we received a response to our amicus brief, filed in City of Perris v. Stamper, a case pending before the California Supreme Court. The National Federal of Independent Business joined us on...
View ArticleCalifornia appellate court vindicates Proposition 13’s eminent domain protection
Enacted by voters as a ballot initiative in 1978, California’s Proposition 13 gives property owners relief on their tax bills by limiting property taxes to one percent of a property’s value, with a...
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Eminent domain conference in San Francisco in February
For the latest and greatest on eminent domain law, with some regulatory takings law thrown in for good measure, check out the ALI-CLE program, Eminent Domain and Land Valuation Litigation, to be held...
View ArticleWould it be cheaper to just fly every Californian to Japan?
I follow The Onion on Twitter. It is a news parody site, and it is regularly hilarious. Over the weekend it tweeted, “Ambitious High-Speed Rail Plan Will Fly Americans To Japan To Use Their Trains...
View ArticleRIP Martin Anderson
Martin Anderson, who served as an advisor to the Reagan Administration and as a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, died this week at the age of 78. Although many obituaries note his White House...
View ArticlePLF files amicus brief in Oregon “right of access” case
In Oregon—as in most states—a landowner whose property abuts a highway has a right to directly access that road. Thus, an abutting owner is entitled to just compensation when the state acquires the...
View ArticlePresident's weekly report — March 27, 2015
Eminent domain — New Jersey Supreme Court abandons precedent In this 3-2 decision, the New Jersey Supreme Court upheld the use of eminent domain in 62-64 Main Street v. Mayor and City Council of the...
View ArticleTim the Lawyer talks with Armstrong & Getty about the raisin-seizure case
This morning I talked with Armstrong & Getty about the Supreme Court’s Horne decision. If you missed it, you can listen online here. The post Tim the Lawyer talks with Armstrong & Getty about...
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A winning hand for the Fifth Amendment
Last month, the Constitution won a hand in an Atlantic City Court. That’s a victory for all Americans. The New Jersey Casino Reinvestment Development Authority (CRDA), a state agency, sought to take...
View ArticleFlorida Supreme Court sends message to government attorneys
Today, the Florida Supreme Court told government attorneys that their client (the government) will pay extra in eminent domain cases if those government attorneys engage in “tactics that cause...
View ArticleLearn all about eminent domain in Austin this January
There’s an excellent ALI-CLE program on eminent domain coming up in Austin on January 28-30 at the Hotel Van Zandt. I’ll be speaking along with a host of experts from around the nation. You can check...
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The Los Angeles Rams: a win for taxpayers and property rights?
This morning the Federalist Society published my blog post regarding the recent announcement of the the St. Louis Rams moving to Los Angeles, their home for 49 years. In the post I discuss why taxpayer...
View ArticlePresident's weekly report — May 20, 2016
Complaint filed to stop “competitors’ veto” in West Virginia PLF attorneys challenged West Virginia’s Competitor’s Veto law on behalf of Arty Vogt, who owns a moving company based in Virginia. Arty...
View ArticleCity of Perris v. Stamper oral argument recap
On Thursday morning, the California Supreme Court heard oral arguments in City of Perris v. Stamper. See our brief in the case here and our previous blog posts on the case here and here for background...
View ArticleWeekly litigation report — June 10, 2016
Another Supreme Court Victory! About two years ago, we filed a petition for certiorari in Kent Recycling v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, a case out of the Fifth Circuit where we were challenging a...
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Weekly litigation report — July 1, 2016
California Supreme Court to take up tax case The right to a jury when the federal government takes your property Appeal filed in mobile home case Loss in gopher frog critical habitat challenge Union...
View ArticleWeekly litigation report — July 9, 2016
The big news around PLF this week was, of course, the announcement of our next President and CEO Steven Anderson. We are all very excited to work with him in the near future. In the meantime, PLF...
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Weekly litigation report — August 14, 2016
Property rights — California Supreme Court rules on compensation issues Complaint filed in extortionate low-income housing demand Ancient custom of beach driving? Sign ban repealed Endangered species...
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Presentation at the Peace Palace
The Peace Palace in The Hague I gave a presentation earlier today at the Peace Palace in The Hague in the Netherlands. This was part of the 13th Annual Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference,...
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Two PLF attorneys to speak at upcoming eminent domain conference
PLF attorney Dave Breemer and I will be speaking at the upcoming ALI-CLE course, Eminent Domain and Land Valuation in San Diego this upcoming January 26 to 28. In addition to Dave and me, Robert Thomas...
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State legislatures do not define what constitutes “just compensation”
The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides that private property shall not be taken “for public use, without just compensation.” The just compensation requirement safeguards private property...
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Weekly litigation report — April 8, 2017
Competitors’ Veto Law Repealed! Another “relevant parcel” case headed for the Supreme Court Cap and trade upheld by California court of appeal Just compensation means compensation that is just, not...
View ArticlePLF asks Indiana Supreme Court to protect coastal property rights
May the government allow strangers to recreate on your private, beach-front property for free? That’s the question the Indiana Supreme Court is being asked to consider in an important property-rights...
View ArticleWeekly litigation report — June 3, 2017
PLF asks Supreme Court to protect free speech San Francisco loses again in case over extortionate demands on property owners Sixth Circuit holds that victims of federal takings do not enjoy the right...
View ArticleCA Senate considers eminent domain reform
We’ve written extensively about negative developments in California eminent domain use over the years, but today we filed this comment letter with the California Senate Judiciary Committee in support...
View ArticleWeekly litigation report — May 5, 2018
Another lawsuit to challenge Seattle’s war on landlords This week, we sued to challenge Seattle’s Fair Chance Housing Ordinance on behalf of several landlords and the Rental Housing Association of...
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Weekly litigation update — October 27, 2018
This road to the Supreme Court takes PLF through the U-P The new route would cut trip distances in half, keep industrial mining trucks out of towns and traffic, and save 450,000 gallons of fuel a year....
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