Takings Clause

In Harm’s Way

Millions of people are in the path of rising seas. The time for action is now.

The NY Times has run a series of articles in the past few days dealing with disaster issues.  Taken together, they highlight the urgency of government action to protect populations in harm’s way. One article dealt generally with the threat posed by sea level rise. Miami is something of a poster-child for these problems, given its …

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Supreme Court Rules for Property Owner in Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management District

The U.S. Supreme Court today decided Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management District. But unlike the previous two, unanimous Takings Clause rulings issued this Term by the justices in Arkansas Game and Fish Commission v. United States and Horne v. Department of Agriculture, the decision in Koontz reflected a sharply divided Court, in a …

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U.S. Supreme Court Rules for Property Owners–Again

Observers continue to await the third and most significant property rights case on the Supreme Court’s docket this Term–Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management District–which should be released later this week.  In the meantime, another property rights case was decided by the justices earlier this month that, while largely overlooked by the media, represents …

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OT 2012 and the Environment

This Supreme Court Term features a number of environmental cases.  We’re now about two-thirds of the way through the Term, so I thought it might be helpful to post a summary of the cases.  My impression is that the Court is interested in environmental law to the extent that it seems to impinge on the …

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Previewing This Week’s Oral Arguments in the Supreme Court’s Most Important Property Rights Case This Term

On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in what is shaping up as the Court’s most important property rights case of the current Term: Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management District, No. 11-1447.  What can we expect? Koontz is one of three Takings Clause cases on the Court’s docket this Term.  …

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Environmental Law and the Gun Debate

The horrifying events in Newtown have predictably led to calls for new gun controls, which have predictably led to push-back from gun rights advocates — some measured, some certifiable. For the most part, this debate has nothing to do with environmental law and policy, but there is an exception.  The New York Times had an …

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Supreme Court Rules Federal Flooding of State Forest Lands an Unconstitutional Taking

Today was a busy day for the environment in the U.S. Supreme Court. Not only did the justices hear arguments in a potentially-important Clean Water Act case. (More on that in a future post.) The Court also issued its first decision among the five environmental cases pending before it this Term–three of which involve property …

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Property Rights & the Takings Clause: Prominent on the U.S. Supreme Court’s Docket This Year

Last week the U.S. Supreme Court granted review in a potentially-important regulatory takings case, bringing to two the number of Takings Clause disputes on the justices’ docket this Term. The newly-granted case, Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management District, No. 11-1447, involves the question of whether a government-imposed condition on its approval of a …

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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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More on Today’s U.S. Supreme Court Property Rights Decision

As fellow Legal Plant contributor, Sean Hecht, reported earlier today, the U.S. Supreme Court decided the most important environmental law case on its current docket: Stop the Beach Renourishment, Inc. v. Florida Dept. of Environmental Protection, No. 08-1151. The Court’s opinion can be found here. The issue in the Stop the Beach Renourishment case is …

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