Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council

What IS a Nuisance, Anyway?

If you’re a Property teacher, you have probably taught nuisance law.  If you are a Land Use teacher, you have probably taught Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council, which relies on nuisance law to establishing “inherent limitations on title.”  More specifically, you have probably taught the Restatement standard for nuisance, which states that an activity …

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The Mystery of Koontz: “Why Are We Here?”

Lyle Denniston of SCOTUSBlog reports that the plaintiff’s argument in the Court’s highest-profile Takings case of the year, Koontz v. St. John’s River Water Management District, did not go well.  Both Rick and I have blogged about the case before, and the more I think about it, it seems to me that the case has been …

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How Plaintiffs Can Win More Takings Cases: A Proposal for California

I’ve never been particularly sympathetic to regulatory takings claims; like many on the left of center, I’m wary of expanding a constitutional doctrine with the potential to severely injure good land-use planning and reconstitute Lochnerism.  That said, it’s hard to look at the reports of many takings cases without getting a strong sense that a lot …

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The Death of the Facial Takings Claim

Last week, I reported a couple of recent appellate court opinions that grapple with the question of a “facial” takings claims — neither of them, in my view, very satisfactorily.  The problem, as I see it, is this: a regulatory takings claim turns on the impact of a government regulation on the plaintiff.  But since …

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The Worst Supreme Court Environmental Decision?

Recently appearing in my in-box is Pepperdine Law School’s latest law porn, a glossy brochure about its upcoming symposium, “Supreme Mistakes: Exploring the Most Maligned Decisions in Supreme Court History.”  Dan will speak, but unless he decides to talk about it, environmental law doesn’t figure to get on the agenda: none of the other speakers has particular …

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