In a potentially important recent decision, Texas Rice Land Partners v. Denbury Green Pipeline the Texas Supreme Court has invalidated the use of eminent domain for a private pipeline to be owned by an oil company. Gideon Kanner has some good commentary on the decision here. In Texas and many other states, public utilities and […]
Archive | Blight
US Commission on Civil Rights Hearing on the Impact of Eminent Domain on Minority Groups
By Ilya Somin on August 12, 2011 12:17 pm in Blight, Eminent Domain, Kelo, Post-Kelo Reform, Property Rights
Earlier today, I testified before the US Commission on Civil Rights at a hearing on the “Civil Rights Implications of Eminent Domain Abuse.” The other panelists were Georgetown law professor Peter Byrne, Hilary Shelton of the NAACP, and David Beito, a prominent historian and chair of the Alabama State Advisory Committee to the USSCR. A […]
Federalism and Property Rights
By Ilya Somin on August 10, 2011 9:26 pm in Blight, Eminent Domain, Federalism, Kelo, Property Rights
My recently published article “Federalism and Property Rights” is now available on SSRN. It’s part of the University of Chicago Legal Forum Symposium on Governance and Power. Here is the abstract: Both the Supreme Court and leading legal scholars have often cited federalism as a reason to severely limit federal judicial enforcement of constitutional property […]
The Judicial Reaction to Kelo
By Ilya Somin on May 31, 2011 5:43 pm in Blight, Eminent Domain, Kelo, Post-Kelo Reform, Property Rights
My article “The Judicial Reaction to Kelo” is now available on SSRN. It is the Introduction to the Albany Government Law Review Symposium on Eminent Domain in the United States, which includes contributions by several well-known eminent domain scholars including my colleague Steve Eagle, Amy Lavine, and David Schultz, among others. Here is the abstract: […]
A Victory for Property Rights in California “Blight” Case
By Ilya Somin on April 29, 2011 3:10 am in Blight, Eminent Domain, Post-Kelo Reform, Property Rights
The Institute for Justice has won a victory in an important property rights case in National City California. The trial judge set aside the city’s “blight” designation of a massive area including almost 700 properties. Had the designation survived, it would have enabled the city to condemn any of these properties at will. Here is […]
Jerry Brown’s Proposal to Abolish California’s Redevelopment Agencies Would Help End Eminent Domain Abuse
By Ilya Somin on March 26, 2011 10:24 pm in Blight, Eminent Domain, Liberaltarianism, Property Rights
As part of his plan to address California’s fiscal crisis, liberal Democratic Governor Jerry Brown has proposed abolishing California’s 400 local “redevelopment agencies,” which would save the state some $1.7 billion per year, an important step towards closing the state’s $25 billion annual deficit. Unfortunately, his plan has so far been stymied by opposition from […]
Two Important New Eminent Domain Cases
Ilya Shapiro (no relation) has a good post detailing two important new eminent domain cases. Both are being contested by the Institute for Justice, the libertarian public interest law firm that litigated Kelo v. City of New London and many other important property rights cases. The National City case from California is yet another egregious […]
Fordham Law School Conference on Eminent Domain in New York
This Friday, I will be speaking at an academic conference on eminent domain in New York at Fordham Law School, 140 W. 62nd Street. The event is sponsored by the Fordham Urban Law Journal. My panel will be at 10 AM, and I will be speaking about the New York Court of Appeals controversial recent […]
Upcoming Talks in Madison, Wisconsin on the Individual Mandate and Property Rights
By Ilya Somin on January 24, 2011 10:06 pm in Blight, Eminent Domain, Federalism, Federalist Society, Health Care, Individual Mandate, Kelo, Post-Kelo Reform, Property Rights
This Wednesday, I will be giving two talks in Madison, Wisconsin. One, sponsored by the Federalist Society Lawyers Division, will be at a panel on the Obamacare individual mandate litigation. The other two panelists are Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen (Wisconsin recently became one of the 28 states challenging the mandate in court) and […]
Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Columbia University Takings Case
By Ilya Somin on December 15, 2010 1:02 am in Blight, Eminent Domain, Kelo, Post-Kelo Reform, Property Rights
Sadly, the Supreme Court has refused to hear the Columbia University blight takings case. This New York state supreme court decision was a particularly egregious instance of the abuse of “blight” condemnations to take property that was not blighted in any meaningful sense and transfer it to a powerful private interest group. I wrote an […]
Our Amicus Brief Urging the Supreme Court to hear the Columbia University “Blight” Takings Case
By Ilya Somin on October 28, 2010 10:58 am in Blight, Eminent Domain, Kelo, Post-Kelo Reform, Property Rights
I recently wrote an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to hear the Columbia University blight takings case, on behalf of the Institute for Justice (the public interest law firm that litigated Kelo v. City of New London, among many other important property rights cases), The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, and the Cato Institute. […]
“Blight” Condemnations in Alabama
By Ilya Somin on August 3, 2010 11:43 pm in Blight, Eminent Domain, Post-Kelo Reform, Property Rights
Historian David Beito, chair of the Alabama Advisory Committee to the US Commission on Civil Rights, has an interesting post documenting the abuse of “blight” condemnations in Montgomery, Alabama: “[E]minent domain through the back door” has become commonplace in Montgomery, the cradle of the modern civil rights movement. Under this system, Montgomery has demolished homes […]
Universities and Eminent Domain
By Ilya Somin on June 25, 2010 12:41 am in Blight, Eminent Domain, Kelo, Post-Kelo Reform, Property Rights
In Kaur v. New York Urban Development Corporation, its recent decision upholding the condemnation of property for transfer to Columbia University, the New York Court of Appeals claimed that the use of eminent domain to transfer land to a private university is more defensible than its use to transfer land to commercial corporations, as in […]
New York High Court Upholds Columbia University Takings
By Ilya Somin on June 24, 2010 5:44 pm in Blight, Eminent Domain, Kelo, Post-Kelo Reform, Property Rights
In today’s decision in Kaur v. New York State Urban Development Corp.
Property Rights Five Years After Kelo
By Ilya Somin on June 23, 2010 4:23 pm in Blight, Eminent Domain, Kelo, Post-Kelo Reform, Property Rights
Today is the fifth anniversary of Kelo v. City of New London, one of the most controversial decisions in Supreme Court history. In Kelo, a narrow 5-4 majority of the Court ruled that the condemnation of private property for transfer to other private individuals for purposes of promoting “economic development” was permitted by the Fifth […]