Municipal & Local Govt law

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5330215_big To those who were able to join us this evening for the celebration of the publication of Eminent Domain – A Handbook of Condemnation Law, thank you.

The University of Hawaii Law School sponsored the reception, and it was good to see so many colleagues and friends in attendance. U.H. put the event together since Professor David Callies was one of the book’s editors, and six U.H. alums contributed chapters.

I was privileged to author two chapters (Prelitigation Process and Flooding & Erosion), and my Damon Key colleagues Mark Murakami and Christi-Anne Kudo Chock co-authored the chapter Damages Resulting from a Taking: An Overview.   

A complete Table of Contents is available here. This book is an overview of the law from folks who have been practicing in that area for a long, long time. It is intended as a “deskbook” — a quick and…

Continue Reading Book Report: Eminent Domain – A Handbook of Condemnation Law

For those who tuned in to today’s webinar Eminent Domain: Redevelopment Challenges for Local Government, here are the cases I spoke about during my session:

  • County of Hawaii v. C&J Coupe Family Ltd. P’ship, 198 P.3d 615 (Haw. 2008) (under Kelo, trial courts presented with prima facie evidence that the stated public use is a pretext to cover up private benefit must look to the real motive for a taking even if the taking is for a “classic” use).

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Continue Reading Links From Today’s Webinar “Eminent Domain: Redevelopment Challenges for Local Government”

Update: The Court has invited the Solicitor General to provide the views of the federal government, so we’re still on hold.

At its December 9, 2011 conference, the U.S. Supreme Court will consider whether to review Corboy v. Louie, No. 11-336 (cert. petition filed Sep. 15, 2011). That’s the case seeking review of the Hawaii Supreme Court’s opinion which concluded that challengers to the property tax exemptions conferred on lessees of Hawaiian Homesteads lacked standing to bring suit.

Some background. Only “native Hawaiians” are eligible to lease homestead land, and thus only those possessing the appropriate blood quantum are entitled to the property tax exemptions. The Hawaii court dismissed the case for lack of jurisdiction, holding the petitioners lacked standing to challenge the exemption since they had not sought homestead leases (leases for which they were ineligible because they are not native Hawaiians).

The challengers filed a cert petition…

Continue Reading Final Briefs In Hawaii SCOTUS Case: Is The Hawaiian Homes Property Tax Exemption Racial Discrimination?

The Star-Advertiser reports this breaking story — Governor makes names of court nominees public:

Following a court order prompted by a Honolulu Star-Advertiser lawsuit, Gov. Neil Abercrombie released the names of nominees to the Hawaii Supreme Court and two Circuit Court judgeships.

Attorney General David Louie said the governor still disagrees with the court decision.

However, the Judicial Selection Commission, which screens and forwards the names of judicial nominees to the governor, decided last week to release the list of candidates when it submits the list to the governor.

“In light of the changed circumstances with the Commission’s actions, judicial applicants will no longer have any expectation of confidentiality,”  Louis [sic] said.

Here is the AG’s News Release. We represent the Star-Advertiser in the case. Here are the documents from that case.

Update: noting that “Abercrombie still disagrees with a ruling but effectively waives the state’s appeal rights,” the…

Continue Reading Hawaii Governor Releases List Of Judicial Nominees

Last week, we filed the ABA’s amicus brief in Filarksy v. Delia, No. 10-1018 (cert. granted Sep. 27, 2011), the case in which the U.S. Supreme Court is considering whether a private lawyer hired by a local government is entitled to claim the same immunities from section 1983 lawsuits as his government-employed counterparts. Our brief for the ABA supports the lawyer-petitioner, arguing that he should be able to claim those immunities.

Here are the other top-side amicus briefs supporting the petitioner:

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Continue Reading More Amicus Briefs In Filarsky: A Private Lawyer Retained To Represent Government Is Entitled To Claim Qualified Immunity

This is a post for those who decided they wanted to visit a law blog today instead of (a) filling their bellies with the usual Thanksgiving fare; (b) watching football on TV; (c) gearing up for the insanity of the day-after shopping; or (d) pretty much anything else.

Seriously, what are you doing reading a law blog this day?

Anyhow, here’s the deal if you are: On Thursday, December 1, 2011 at 1:00pm-2:30pm EST (10:00am-11:30am PST, 8:00am – 9:30am HST) we’ll be presenting the on-line webinar “Eminent Domain: Redevelopment Challenges for Local Governnment – Navigating Federal Funding Requirements, Challenges for Public Utilities in Right-of-Way Projects, and Objections to Taking for Public Use“ (click the link for more information), and if you’d like to join us with the $250 registration fee waived (yes: free, gratis, no charge, free-ninety-free), and you are one of the first three people…

Continue Reading T-Day Door Prize. Second Prize Is A Set Of Steak Knives.

Today on behalf of the American Bar Association, we filed this amicus brief in Filarsky v. Delia, No. 10-1018 (cert. granted Sep. 27, 2011).

The issue in the case involves the immunities that lawyers may be entitled to claim in civil rights actions under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. It’s not a land use case, but since every land use and takings lawyer must know the contours of section 1983 law, we thought we’d follow along. Of course, the issue is also of great interest to the ABA’s State & Local Government Law Section (I chair the Section’s Condemnation Law Practice Area, and run the CLE programs for the Section), so when ABA asked if we and our SLG colleagues would do a brief, we naturally agreed.

The issue in the case is whether Mr. Filarsky, a private lawyer retained by the City of Rialto, California to conduct a portion …

Continue Reading New SCOTUS Brief: A Private Lawyer Retained To Represent Government Is Entitled To Claim Qualified Immunity

Here are three more items from the Honolulu media about the case in which the Star-Advertiser is seeking the Judicial Selection Commission lists from the Governor (Star-Advertiser v. Abercrombie, No. 11-1-1871-08). Disclosure: we represent the Star-Advertiser in this case.

  • Off The Beat: Should OIP Be Patting Itself on the Back? – Honolulu Civil Beat‘s editorial tracking the arc of the case, including the drama surrounding the Office of Information Practice. After one OIP director was replaced after the office issued an opinion about the JSC list, her replacement pretty much washed the OIP’s hands of the matter saying there was nothing more

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Continue Reading More On The JSC List Case

The Hawaii Attorney General today issued a statement responding to the recently-announced changes in the Judicial Selection Commission Rules, whereby the Commission said that from here forward, it would publicly disclose the names on the list of judicial nominees at the same time it transmits those lists to the “appointing authorities” (governors and Chief Justices).

He also announced some thoughts about whether the Governor will appeal the ruling that he must disclose JSC lists. [Disclosure: we represent the Star-Advertiser in this case.].

Here’s what the AG had to say:

“We recognize the right of the Judicial Selection Commission to change its rules and decide upon its own authority whether to publicize the names on the list. But this does not change the holding in the Pray vs. Judicial Selection Commission case that provided the Governor with discretion to release the names, contrary to Judge Sakamoto’s ruling against…

Continue Reading AG’s Statement About JSC List Case And Rule Changes

We’ve been kind of busy in the last few days with a couple of appellate briefs, so haven’t had a lot of time to post up the latest cases and articles of interest. But here’s what we are reading today, in between brief writing:

  • Hawaii Supreme Court Nominees Will Be Public – Courthouse News Services writes about the case in which we represent the Star-Advertiser in its case to compel the governor to publicly disclose the lists of judicial nominees he receives from the Judicial Selection Commission. More on the case here. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press also reported on the story here. 
  • Beyond “NIMBY” – a post on Legal Planet, a blog produced by enviro lawprofs, advocates that we abandon the term NIMBY. I like “I GOT MINE.”

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Continue Reading Friday Round Up