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 | Eminent Domain
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: […]
Allentown, PA Plans to Use Eminent Domain to Take Property for a Hockey Arena
By Ilya Somin on May 19, 2011 11:29 pm in Eminent Domain, Post-Kelo Reform, Property Rights, Sports and Games
The city of Allentown, Pennsylvania plans to use eminent domain, or at least the threat of it, to forcibly acquire downtown property for the construction of a minor league hockey arena [HT: my father-in-law Bruce Schmauch, a longtime Allentown resident]: It was drop-the-gloves time in Allentown City Council chambers Wednesday night. A parade of downtown […]
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 […]
Somin Family Featured in December 2010 Issue of Engage
By Ilya Somin on December 30, 2010 10:45 pm in Eminent Domain, Kelo, Post-Kelo Reform, Property Rights, Sports and Games
The December 2010 issue of Engage features not one but two items written by members of the Somin family: a debate on Kelo v. City of New London and eminent domain reform between University of Chicago Law Professor (and former Dean) Saul Levmore and myself; and an article on Title IX and women’s sports written […]
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 […]
New Survey Data on Public Attitudes Towards Kelo and Economic Development Takings
By Ilya Somin on November 23, 2010 5:53 pm in Eminent Domain, Kelo, Political Ignorance, Polls, Post-Kelo Reform, Property Rights
Kelo v. City of New London, which ruled that government has the power to forcibly transfer property from one private owner to another in order to promote “economic development,” was one of the most unpopular decisions in the history of the Supreme Court. Polls conducted soon after the decision was issued in 2005 found that […]
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. […]
Talk on Kelo and Eminent Domain at Lewis & Clark Law School
By Ilya Somin on October 10, 2010 3:23 pm in Eminent Domain, Kelo, Post-Kelo Reform, Property Rights
For those who might be interested, I will be speaking at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon tomorrow. The topic is my work on Kelo v. City of New London and post-Kelo eminent domain reform. I will also touch briefly on post-Kelo developments in state constitutional law on public use issues, including the […]