Nick Sibilla of the Institute for Justice describes Sacramento and Washington, DC’s ill-advised plans to use the threat of eminent domain to acquire property to build sports stadiums on: In less than a week, two capital cities are preparing to use eminent domain to build professional sports stadiums. Talk about foul play. The Sacramento city […]
Archive | Property Rights
My USA Today Column on the City of Richmond’s Plan to Condemn Mortgages
By Ilya Somin on August 12, 2013 5:12 pm in Eminent Domain, Just Compensation Clause, Property Rights
The USA Today website just published my column criticizing the Richmond, CA’s plan to condemn mortgages: The City of Richmond, California is threatening to use eminent domain to condemn over 600 mortgages on homes that are now worth less than the outstanding debt on the mortgages themselves. The city plans to write down the value […]
Will the City of Richmond’s Plan to Condemn Mortgages Really Cost Taxpayers Nothing?
By Ilya Somin on August 9, 2013 8:34 pm in Eminent Domain, Just Compensation Clause, Property Rights
In an earlier post, I noted that one of the problems with the California City of Richmond’s plan to use eminent domain to condemn mortgages is that taxpayers will have to pay for it. However, some defenders of the plan – such as Mortgage Resolution Partners – the “community advisory” firm that has been hired […]
Lawsuit Challenges Richmond, CA’s Plan to Use Eminent Domain to Condemn Mortgages
By Ilya Somin on August 7, 2013 11:10 pm in Eminent Domain, Just Compensation Clause, Kelo, Property Rights
A group of bond investors has filed a lawsuit challenging the California City of Richmond’s plan to use eminent domain to condemn mortgages: Bond investors including Pacific Investment Management Co. and BlackRock Inc. (BLK) are seeking a court order blocking Richmond, California, and Mortgage Resolution Partners LLC from seizing mortgages through eminent domain, saying the […]
New Yorker Article on Asset Forfeiture Abuse
By Ilya Somin on August 5, 2013 4:31 pm in Asset Forfeiture, Due Process Clause Property Rights, Property Rights
The New Yorker has an interesting article on asset forfeiture abuse, describing how law enforcement authorities routinely use it to seize property from people who have never been convicted of any crime, and often have not even been charged: On a bright Thursday afternoon in 2007, Jennifer Boatright, a waitress at a Houston bar-and-grill, drove […]
Just Compensation Problems with the City of Richmond’s Plan to Use Eminent Domain to Condemn Mortgages
In my previous post on the the California city of of Richmond’s plan to use eminent domain to condemn underwater mortgages, I noted that the plan is likely to be permissible under the Supreme Court’s decision in Kelo v. City of New London, which says that a taking is for a constitutional “public use,” so […]
Using Eminent Domain to Condemn Mortgages
The New York Times has an interesting article describing one California city’s plan to use eminent domain to condemn and restructure mortgages [HT: numerous readers who have written me requesting that I do a post about this issue]: The power of eminent domain has traditionally worked against homeowners, who can be forced to sell their […]
Libertarianism and the Supreme Court
By Ilya Somin on July 29, 2013 6:14 pm in Commerce Clause, Federalism, Libertarianism, Property Rights, Supreme Court
Simon Lazarus of the liberal Constitutional Accountability Center is correct to point out that the Supreme Court’s decisions have trended in a somewhat libertarian direction over the last year. I also agree with many of co-blogger Randy Barnett’s explanations for why this has happened. In addition to the cases cited by Lazarus, it’s also worth […]
Court Ruling Forces Nebraska Police to Return $1 Million Seized from a Former Exotic Dancer by Asset Forfeiture
A federal judge recently ordered the return of $1 million seized from a former exotic dancer by asset forfeiture [HT: VC reader Tom Kamenick]: A federal judge has ruled that Nebraska cops must return over $1 million confiscated at a traffic stop from a woman who saved the money $1 at a time during her […]
More on Eminent Domain, Crony Capitalism, and the Decline of Detroit
Building on my post discussing the role of eminent domain abuse and the destruction of property rights in helping to cause the decline of Detroit, economist David Henderson has an interesting discussion of how “urban renewal” condemnations in the 1960s helped cause the massive 1967 race riot that most believe was a major milestone in […]
Eminent Domain and the Decline of Detroit
Detroit’s sixty year decline, culminating in its recent bankruptcy, has many causes. But one that should not be ignored is the city’s extensive use of eminent domain to transfer property to politically influential private interests. For many years, Detroit aggressively used eminent domain to promote “economic development” and “urban renewal.” The most notorious example was […]
Our Amicus Brief on the Property Rights of Private Planned Communities
The Cato Institute recently filed an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to hear Mariner’s Cove Townhomes Association v. United States , a case addressing an important issue involving the property rights of private planned communities. The brief was filed on behalf of Cato and several property scholars, including Richard Epstein (Chicago and NYU), James […]
The Case for Federal Eminent Domain Reform
By Ilya Somin on July 1, 2013 7:54 pm in Blight, Eminent Domain, Kelo, Post-Kelo Reform, Property Rights
Nick Sibilla of the Institute for Justice, the libertarian public interest firm that litigated Kelo v. City of New London and many other property rights cases, has a good op ed in Forbes on the need for reform measures to curb federal funding of abusive condemnations by state and local governments: Eight years ago, the […]
The Kelo Condemnation Site Still Lies Empty Eight Years after the Supreme Court Ruled it Could be Taken for “Economic Development”
In its controversial 2005 decision in Kelo v. City of New London, the Supreme Court ruled that private property can be taken and transferred to other private owners in order to promote “economic development.” Eight years have passed since that decision. But, as the New London Day reports, there is still no development going on. […]
Rick Hills on Koontz, Property Rights, and Federalism
NYU law professor Rick Hills isn’t nearly as pleased with the Supreme Court’s important property rights decision in Koontz as I am. He objects to the result primarily on federalism grounds. In Rick’s view, federal courts should not enforce significant Takings Clause constraints on state land use policies because they can’t effectively with the diversity […]