Eminent Domain: First Principles, Kelo, and In Service of Infrastructure Buildout
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On August 20, 2024, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania issued a ruling in Wolfe v. Reading Blue Mountain & Northern RR Co. The Court overturned the Commonwealth Court’s determination that a condemnation of private land by a...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit recently ruled in the Puerto Rico bankruptcy case that Fifth Amendment takings claims cannot be discharged or impaired by a bankruptcy plan. As a matter of first impression in...more
A recent decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit concerned a nightmare scenario for any property owner. The plaintiffs sought to rebuild their beachfront house after it was destroyed. Originally...more
In a rescript opinion issued yesterday in Gentili v. Town of Sturbridge (pdf), the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) ruled that a municipality’s acquisition of a prescriptive easement over private property is not an eminent domain...more
Public infrastructure projects are on the rise, from new transit systems to comprehensive highway renovations and everything in between. Behind the scenes, some governmental body is fast at work acquiring private land along...more
For landowners, learning that the government intends to take their property is always a rude awakening. After receiving notice that the government seeks to acquire a piece of land, the landowner sets off on a difficult...more
When the government physically takes or occupies property without first going through the rigorous procedural requirements under California eminent domain law, usually it’s a clear-cut case of inverse condemnation liability. ...more
On July 23, 2018, the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed the Private Property Rights Protection Act of 2017 (H.R. 1689). Sponsored by Wisconsin Congressman F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr. and California...more
The US Supreme Court issued its Kelo eminent domain case in 2005. That case held that it is not necessarily unconstitutional to take private property for another private entity to use. Now the subject of that case is the...more
Infrastructure projects take years to develop: the environmental review, funding, design, procurement, and construction of a public project is time consuming in any state, but even more so in California given the strict...more
In 2005, the United States Supreme Court decided in Kelo v. City of New London, 545 U.S. 469 (2005), that the Constitution allows the government to take private property through eminent domain for the purpose of “economic...more
When public agencies analyze a potential public project, they often need to gain access to private property for surveys, testing, and to otherwise investigate whether a particular property is suitable for a planned project. ...more
Last week, Jeremy Jacobs posted an interesting article about the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Horne v. Dep’t of Agriculture, No. 14-275 (U.S. Jun. 22, 2015), and its potential application to Endangered Species Act...more
As an eminent domain attorney, when I think about a “takings” claim, I always think about a claim involving someone’s real property. Has the government trespassed onto private property, has it imposed regulations that deny...more
At first it seemed 2014 had been a relatively slow year for eminent domain cases. But looking back, there was more activity than we initially recalled. There were few decisions that provided any dramatic shift in the...more
Most people understand the basic concept of eminent domain: the government takes someone’s private property and pays the owner “just compensation” for the taking. Sometimes, however, the government “takes” (or “damages”)...more
There are times when governments, attempting to revitalize a downtown area or conduct other operations, need to take private lands to further their purpose. To do so, they may invoke their eminent domain powers....more
In 1985, the U.S. Supreme Court issued Williamson County Regional Planning Commission v. Hamilton Bank of Johnson City, 473 U.S. 172, a landmark decision (as Supreme Court decisions often are) that drastically slashed the...more