Genuine Pennsylvania coal…
… anthracite, not bituminous

What to get the dirt lawyer in your life for the holidays? Charlie Brown got a bag of rocks for Halloween, so there’s that. Or there are the old reliable origami boulders (see below). But you are better than that and want to be a good gifter.

So here are our 2022 suggestions for stocking stuffers that will make property mavens celebrate the season. Some of these are return visitors to the list, and some are new. Suggest your own in the comments below.

* * * *

A Lump of Genuine Pennsylvania Coal. We start with this, perhaps the most appropriate gift on this, the 100th Anniversary of Mahon. Is there a more appropriate gift for that property law professional on your list than a lump of Pennsylvania coal? (Anthracite of course.) But let’s say you don’t live in…

Continue Reading These Are A Few Of Our Favorite Things: Dirt Lawyer Holiday Gift Giving Guide (2022 Edition)

On the day we celebrate Constitution Day (or should we say Khaaaaan-stitution Day?) we have to admit that pretty much nothing beats One Named Kirk’s reading of the Preamble. 

KIRK: This was not written for chiefs.Hear me! Hear this! Among my people, we carry many such words as this from many lands, many worlds. Many are equally good and are as well respected, but wherever we have gone, no words have said this thing of importance in quite this way. Look at these three words written larger than the rest, with a special pride never written before or since. Tall words proudly saying We the People. That which you call “Ee’d Plebnista” was not written for the chiefs or the kings or the warriors or the rich and powerful, but for all the people! Down the centuries, you have slurred the meaning of the words: “We…

Continue Reading Hear Me! Hear This! This Was Not Written For Chiefs! – Happy Constitution Day 2022

Every year at this time, it seems, we’re realizing again that as you get older, you forget birthdays. It occurred to us only over this past weekend that that this blog’s “birthday” was looming and we almost let it slip by without notice. It hardly seems like sixteen years ago that we posted here for the first time.

In law blog years, that’s quite a while.

Because doing this in a vacuum would not be worthwhile, we’d like to recognize those who send us items, who make comments, who give us feedback, who gently prod with suggestions, and who simply read and subscribe. You guys make the efforts that go into this thing all worth it. You are why we keep it going: this blog has allowed us to connect with many of you over the years all over the country and even internationally, an opportunity we’d otherwise…

Continue Reading They Say It’s Your Birthday, Well It’s Our Birthday Too, Yeah!

You remember our earlier posts about the issue (known as “home equity theft”). In a series of decisions mostly by state supreme courts, those courts have asked whether it is legal for a state or local government to “keep the change” after seizing and selling a tax debtor’s property. For examples, see these cases:

• Alabama: Gov’t Can’t Keep The Change After A Tax Sale
• Michigan: Gov’t Keeping The Change From Tax Delinquent Sale Is A Taking

For more on the issues, check out the video above.

Thing is, not every court so far has seen it this way. At least two have held that there’s no takings or other constitutional problem. Nebraska said no, as did the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

With a divergence in the lower courts you know what comes next, don’t you? That’s right, certiorari. Here are two new takings cert petitions, recently…

Continue Reading New Cert Petitions: “Keeping The Change” After Tax Foreclosure Is A Taking

…
Continue Reading The Verified Complaint In Equity: The Declaration Of Independence, 2022 Version

Even if the world were open today, the doors to most Hawaii state, county, and city offices would still be locked. Because today is the day that Hawaii celebrates Good Friday.

Yes, Good Friday is an an official state-sanctioned holiday in the 808 area code, so we’re reposting our annual recounting of how it came to be that the State commemorates the date of the crucifixion, and how that squares with the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. 

Turns out that we don’t really commemorate today as the crucifixion date, and it is just coincidence that the official State “spring holiday” occurs on the same day. (And this being Hawaii, in the end it’s really a public worker’s union thing.)

Good Friday is a legal holiday in the State of Hawaii pursuant to Haw. Rev. Stat. § 8-1. [Barista’s note: here’s a case we argued a couple…

Continue Reading Today Is Hawaii’s Secular Good Friday Holiday – A Day To Celebrate Public Worker Unions

From the “too modest” department: when you find out that a fellow you knew only as an appraiser/MAI (who once mentioned offhand that he was “in the Army for a bit before I became an appraiser”) was so much more than what you knew him as.

Yes, he was the one who taught you about appraisal science and art, and helped you pick apart the other side’s valuation. But only in his obituary do you learn that Jay Massey MAI was one of the legendary MAC-V/SOG operators; indeed a “One-Zero” (team leader), and spent years at the front lines and behind the lines. Master Blaster. One STRAC individual. One of the old school Green Berets, who answered JFK’s call to do for his country, and lived up to the label “the Quiet Professionals.”

Jay, I wish you had been less modest, a bit less quiet. You and I would…

Continue Reading Adieu To A Quiet Professional – Jay Massey

But seriously, have a very happy and restful holiday.

        – Your friends at inversecondemnation.comContinue Reading Yule Log III, Director’s Commentary