Antonin Scalia

Upcoming Regulatory Takings Conference 2016

Nation’s Top Annual Takings Event Set for November 4th in New Orleans

One of the most important issues in modern environmental law and policy is the extent to which constitutionally-protected property rights limit environmental regulatory programs at the federal, state and local levels.  Indeed, the U.S. Supreme Court has focused more attention on this question over the last four decades than any other aspect of modern environmental …

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Nevada Governor Sandoval on Obama’s Short List of Supreme Court Candidates

How Would a Justice Sandoval Vote on Environmental Issues?

Multiple news sources reported Wednesday that the Obama Administration has floated the first identified candidate the President is considering nominating to the U.S. Supreme Court to replace Justice Antonin Scalia, who died unexpectedly earlier this month.  That candidate is a most intriguing and unconventional one: Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval–a Republican. Sandoval, 52, received his law …

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Can the Supreme Court Provide Just Desserts?

Time for Different Flavors of Legal Reasoning

Ben and Jerry’s flavor honoring Stephen Colbert — “Americone Dream” — has been so successful, people are coming with other ideas. Tania Lambrozio gets lawyers into the act with her nomination: “Ruth Bader Ginger.” I’ve never actually had ginger ice cream, although I love ginger bread, so maybe it could work. Now there is a petition …

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If the Constitution is Dead, where does that leave Takings?

Justice Scalia is getting a lot of attention for his comment that the Constitution is “dead, dead, dead”, but obviously he didn’t mean that the Constitution is no longer in effect.  (See?  Intent theory sometimes is helpful, Nino.).  Rather, he meant that the Constitution does not have a meaning that changes over time.  It has …

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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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Time to Put Nino Out to Pasture

Intellectual history often presents its students with shocks, most prominently: how is it that people seemed to reject an idea that in retrospect was brilliant or useful?  Conversely, how is it that people believed that intellectual mediocrities were learned savants?   Justice Scalia’s latest statement on Supreme Court doctrine suggests that he will be a …

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Clarence Thomas: Nino Scalia Should Resign

Well, not quite.  But just look at the quotes. Clarence Thomas, in a recent speech to Georgia attorneys: “This job is a humbling job,” he said. “It’s the end of the food chain. And some people can do it, and some can’t. But what it teaches you is that you don’t have all the answers. The …

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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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