Public Use | Kelo

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Yes, it’s our old favorite, the Australian eminent domain comedy, The Castle (our review herefirst Law Film Festival, and were in good company: Ebert also loved the movie).

The most recent edition of the ABA Journal, features “12 pivotal movie scenes with lessons for lawyers.” The lesson we learn from the “one of the most painfully awkward courtroom scenes put on film,” where inept solicitor Dennis Denuto tries to argue his way around the Australian Constitution’s version of the Takings Clause at a public use hearing: 

There are times when lawyers can reach beyond their limited experience, rise to the occasion and snatch victory for the little guy. There are also times when you know yourself to be outmatched. Potential clients may have complete faith in you, but they probably do not understand the law and the challenges they may face. If you know that…

Continue Reading ABA Journal Zeros In On Our Favorite Courtroom Scene In A Legal Film

Here’s more on a post in May in which we suggested you should get your hands on a copy of Professor Gideon Kanner’s latest article, Detroit and the Decline of Urban America, 2013 Mich. St. L. Rev. 1547 (2014). He writes about the role of eminent domain as one of the six factors contributing to urban flight and depopulation of major cities such as Detroit. Unfortunately, we could only post a reference to the article, but not the article itself.

Now we can. Here it is. It is a quick and enlightening read.

Related articles
Why We Fight: An Interview With Gideon Kanner, “A Fierce Advocate for Just Compensation”
New Article Of Note: The Role Of Eminent Domain Abuse In Detroit’s Downfall
Use Eminent Domain To “Redevelop” A Sports Franchise, And Take It From An Undeserving Owner?
Professor Kanner On Justice Ginsburg’s Eminent Domain Illiteracy
Gideon’s Trumpet Continues to Sound

Continue Reading Kanner: Detroit and the Decline of Urban America

Like a visiting relative who won’t go home, the idea to seize underwater-but-performing mortgages is still hanging on. The llatest chapter is brought to us by way of our New York colleague Mike Rikon, who writes:

At a press conference on the steps of City Hall, City Council members and housing advocacy groups called on the Mayor to help homeowners who are at risk of foreclosure. Such help would come in the form of using eminent domain to “buy back mortgages where homeowners owe more than their houses are worth.”

According to a CBS report on June 25, 2014, “under the proposed plan, City government would purchase the mortgages from banks and refinance them to match the home’s value to prevent foreclosure.” 

Mike notes that nearly two years ago (and several times since), we suggested that this plan was not clearly legal, and even if it were, was not…

Continue Reading Farpotshket Alert: Plan To Take Mortgages By Eminent Domain Is Back

The Utah DOT took all 15 acres of Carlson’s property even though it needed only 1.2 acres for the project. Why? Because it wanted to “avoid[] litigation regarding Carlson’s severance damages.” Well, that’s mighty good of them to want to keep it simple.

Carlson, however, objected on two grounds. First, he asserted that a Utah statute (Utah Code § 72-5-113) did not authorize excess takings. Second, he asserted that the DOT did not have a public use in taking the excess. The trial court rejected his statutory argument, and did not address his constitutional claim.

In Utah Dep’t of Transportation v. Carlson, No. 20120414 (June 24, 2014), the Utah Supreme Court affirmed the trial court’s rejection of the statutory claim, but concluded that Carlson’s constitutional challenge was a “serious one.”

Although we agree with UDOT’s statutory position and thus affirm that aspect of the district court’s decision, we…

Continue Reading Utah: “Serious” Question Whether Excess Taking Is For Public Use

Little-pink-house

Little Pink House, Jeff Benedict’s book about the Kelo v. City of New London case, looks like it is going to become a feature film. 

Earlier, we heard it was going to be a TV (Lifetime) movie with Brooke Shields in the protagonist role, but it appears that they’re going for your local multiplex or arthouse instead, according to an op-ed in USA Today with the interesting title of “Culture can help tame eminent domain abuse” (“We are producing a feature film based on Kelo’s historic saga, and we hope to achieve some of the impact garnered by Erin Brockovich, another underdog film about a real-life working-class woman.”).

The authors, producers of the film, suggest that if only the public knew about Susette Kelo’s story, attitudes would shift about eminent domain abuse:

Erin Brockovich showed how culture can elevate otherwise obscure issues to…

Continue Reading Kelo On The Silver Screen: “Culture can help tame eminent domain abuse”

Lgo

ALI-CLE, the good folks who put on the annual programs on Eminent Domain and Land Valuation, and Condemnation 101: How to Prepare and Present an Eminent Domain Case, have announced the dates and venue for the 2015 conferences:

Thursday – Saturday, February 5-7, 2015 

Hotel Nikko, in San Francisco.

Those of you who have attended or taught at these conferences in the past know they are the premier programs on this topic, and feature exciting presentations and excellent faculty.

I’ve been honored to be asked to serve as the Planning Co-chair of the 32d annual Eminent Domain and Land Valuation Litigation program, stepping into the able shoes of Leslie Fields, who retired last year. Joe Waldo is continuing as Planning Co-Chair. Joe and I are currently putting together the agenda and faculty for the program, and we will have more on that soon. Andrew…

Continue Reading Mark Your Calendars: 2015 ALI-CLE Eminent Domain and Land Valuation, and Condemnation 101 – February 5-7, 2015, San Francisco

Here’s a quick update on a recent post about an Orlando church which is being targeted by the city so it can build a new stadium for a privately-owned soccer franchise.

Turns out the church has hired our Owners’ Counsel colleague and friend Andrew Brigham, and will be opposing the taking on public use grounds, among others. More about the church’s response here and here. 

This just got really interesting. 

Related articles
RLUIPA And The Condemnation Of Church-Owned Property
Orlando Plans to Swipe Church Property to Build a Soccer Stadium
Church Prepares to Fight City’s Eminent Domain Lawsuit for Soccer Stadium
Orlando City stadium pics unveiled
Orlando Plans To Overtake A Church To Build A Soccer Stadium
Orlando Shows Off Stadium Renderings

Continue Reading Orlando Church To Fight Taking

Our friends and colleagues over at RLUIPA Defense blog Evan Seeman and Dwight Merriam have posted on a case is generating some media attention, and might be interesting to watch.

Orlando wants — what else — a new sports venue. A soccer stadium. And the city is using — what else — eminent domain to get it. One property standing in the way is a family-owned parcel which currently is being used for a church. [Barista’s note: soccer, you have hit the Big Leagues when municipalities are using their eminent domain power to take private property for your stadiums.] You know the drill: city offers low, owners want high, a deal doesn’t materialize, and the next thing you know, eminent domain complaint filed. 

So check out “RLUIPA & Eminent Domain – City of Orlando to Take Church Property to Construct Major League Soccer Stadium.” And while you are at it, see…

Continue Reading RLUIPA And The Condemnation Of Church-Owned Property

Battle for Brooklyn film poster

You remember Battle for Brooklyn, the documentary which chronicles the eminent domain fight over New York’s Atlantic Yards project? (Read our review of the film here to refresh your recollection.)

Well here’s the latest chapter. Or perhaps “epilogue” is more appropriate, because the former property owners have long since been evicted, the homes have been razed, and the New Jersey Brooklyn Nets are ensconced in the Barclays Center. (The promised affordable housing and “jobs, jobs, jobs?” Eh, not so much, but who’s counting?)

According to this story in the New York Times, preservationists are planning to award the private beneficiaries of the city’s exercise of eminent domain something called the “Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Medal.” Seriously:

The Municipal Art Society is well known for campaigns to save Grand Central Terminal and Lever House and to stop towers that would have cast long shadows over…

Continue Reading Atlantic Yards: How About Calling It The “Jay Z” Medal?

…No, not Sgt. Pepper. It was on this day in 1984 that the U.S. Supreme Court issued its 8-0 decision in Hawaii Housing Authority v. Midkiff, 467 U.S. 229 (1984), as this article (“Today in 1984: SCOTUS Upholds Hawaii Land Redistribution Eminent Domain Plan“) correctly notes.

Check it out. The author, “an attorney practicing in the areas of family law and estate planning” (?) does a good job and asks valid questions:

Why was there so little outcry against Midkiff, which involved a government takings program far vaster than that at issue in Kelo? For one, there has been a rise in general distrust of government among the populace between Midkiff and Kelo. But, perhaps more significantly, as noted in an earlier Today in Legal History installment, Kelo’s property transfer was, generally speaking, from poor to rich, whereas Midkiff’s transfers were…

Continue Reading It Was 30 Years AgoToday…