42 U.S.C. § 1983 | Civil Rights

Subscribe to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 | Civil Rights via RSS

Update 10/25/2019: an astute and seasoned correspondent writes that the issue of whether a property owner must raise constitutional issues in the administrative proceedings was settled in a published opinion that involved the same agency, the California Coastal Commission. See Healing v. Cal. Coastal Comm’n (1994) 22 Cal. App. 4th 1158 (we put in in California citation style just because) (“These [the takings questions] are questions for a court of law to decide at an evidentiary trial, not by mandamus review of an administrative record of proceedings where the parties’ right to present evidence was limited by the very nature of the administrative process.”).

Why the Coastal Commission doesn’t know its own law, escapes us.  

++++++

Hat tip to Benjamin Rubin at the California Eminent Domain Report for writing up a recent opinion issued by the California Court of Appeal, Greene v. California Coastal Comm’n, No. B293301 (Oct. 9…

Continue Reading Cal App: Agency Has Power To Adjudicate Whether The Agency Itself Is Taking Property (Really)

Https _cdn.evbuc.com_images_60905186_142376048408_1_original

Chief Justice Marshall (L) and Professor Wythe (R) request the pleasure of your company at the 16th Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference at the William & Mary Law School, in Williamsburg, Virginia, Thursday and Friday, October 3-4, 2019. Register here, and make your plans to join us. 

The Conference’s main event is the awarding of the Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Prize to Professor Emeritus Steven J. Eagle, recognizing his lifetime of work and scholarship about property law and property rights. Here’s the official announcement:

The annual Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference is presented by the William & Mary Property Rights Project and is named in recognition of Toby Prince Brigham and Gideon Kanner for their lifetime contributions to private property rights. The conference is designed to bring together members of the bench, bar, and academia to explore recent developments in the law that affect property rights. The Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference began…

Continue Reading Space Still Available: Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference, Oct. 3-4, 2019

Klingonsnippet

Takings mavens know lawprof Ilya Somin. Among other things, he’s authored some of the more interesting and useful scholarship in our field.

Here’s his latest, published in the 2019 Cato Supreme Court Review, about the Supreme Court’s latest takings case, Knick v. Township of Scott. 

We naturally recommend you read the entirety of his article, Knick v. Township of Scott: Ending a Catch-22 that Barred Takings Cases from Federal Court, which he has posted on SSRN here. 

And for those of you wondering about the snippet above, Prof. Somin was brave enough (or geeky enough) to include a reference to our commentary on the SG’s amicus arguments in Knick, comparing it to the weak-sauce Klingon forehead “retcon” in Star Trek. How could we resist highlighting the inclusion of an impossibly nerdy Trek reference in a published scholarly work? 

Thank you, and bravo, Sir. …

Continue Reading New Article: “Knick v. Township of Scott: Ending a Catch-22 that Barred Takings Cases from Federal Court”

6a00d83451707369e2022ad3b86fce200d-800wi

You overwhelmingly asked for Nashville, and we’re bringing it to you!

Get ready, and hold your place now: here’s the list of programs and speakers for the 36th Annual ALI-CLE Eminent Domain and Land Valuation Litigation Conference, to be held at the Downtown Nashville Hilton, January 23,- 25, 2020. Two-and-a-half days with top-notch national faculty (lawyers from both sides, judges, legal scholars, appraisers, relocation experts, and others).  

Early registration and group rates are available now. 

Here are just some of the programs:

  • Featured Presentation: Property Rights as Civil Rights: Seeking Justice Though the Fourth and Fifth Amendments. Hon. Jonathan Apgar, Jamila Johnson, Alan Ackerman. Moderator: Leslie Fields.
  • Making Sense of the New Rules After Knick v. Township of Scott: Where Do I Go, What Do I Do? David Breemer, Smitha Chintamaneni, Professor Bethany Berger. Moderator: Professor Steven Eagle.
  • When A River Runs Thought It: Water Rights and

…
Continue Reading Here’s The Agenda And Faculty For The 2020 ALI-CLE Eminent Domain And Land Valuation Litigation Conference, Nashville, Jan 23-25, 2020

A very short (3 pages) opinion from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in a takings case. In Bay Point Properties, Inc. v. Mississippi Trans. Comm’n, No. 18-60674 (Aug. 27, 2019), the court somewhat cryptically concluded that a property owner who asserted that it was not fully compensated in state court inverse condemnation case, could not then sue the state DOT in federal court for the difference.

If this case sounds somewhat familiar to you, it does to us also. We were counsel for the property owner on the cert petition which the opinion mentions. See slip op. at 2 (“So the property owner, after losing on appeal in state court and unsuccessfully seeking certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court…”). 

Read the opinion. There’s not a whole lot there, except the court concluding that yes, Eleventh Amendment immunity prevents a state from being sued in…

Continue Reading CA5: Even After Knick, You Still Can’t Sue A State In Federal Court For Money For A Taking

ALI Nashville 2020

The final agenda and faculty list will soon be officially published, but we wanted to give you a preview of what is in store at the ALI-CLE Eminent Domain and Land Valuation Litigation Conference, January 23-25, 2020, at the Nashville Hilton (downtown, just a few steps away from everything that Nashville has to offer). 

Don’t miss out: in recent years, we’ve been at-or-near capacity, and the conference hotel has even sold out a couple of times. Visit the ALI-CLE website to register and hold your space. 

Here are some of the things we’ll be discussing: 

  • Making Sense of the New Rules After Knick v. Township of Scott: Where Do I Go, What Do I Do?
  • The Missing Link in Valuing Fixtures
  • When a River Runs Through it: Water Rights and Takings
  • Responding to Project Changes: Valuation When Government Action is Ongoing
  • Property Rights as Civil Rights: Seeking Justice Through

…
Continue Reading Get Ready: The 2020 ALI-CLE Eminent Domain And Land Valuation Litigation Conference Agenda Coming Soon

Here’s what we are reading this Tuesday:

…
Continue Reading Tuesday Takings Round-Up: Alien Takings; Zombies; Kelo, Philippines-Style; Kafka

20180823_102346_HDR

We’re about to get underway with the fall semester at William and Mary Law School, where we’re again teaching an upper-division course, Eminent Domain and Property Rights. 

We’ve more than doubled the size of last year’s enrollment, so it looks like the word is getting out. We cover not only eminent domain and just compensation, but takings (yes, we have a lot of new materials to cover there), civil forfeiture, a small bit of crossover with land use, local government, and related, property rights as civil rights, how property law is discussed in the public sphere, due process, and how to lawyer up these cases. And in early October, the opportunity to have some of the nation’s best property law scholars “guest lecture” during the Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference. Here’s the official description:

Property rights and the sovereign’s power of eminent domain have been essential components of…

Continue Reading Law 608: Eminent Domain And Property Rights – Season 2