A recent New York Times article laments the spread of illegal organ markets in Europe, in which mostly poor people try to sell kidneys and other organs to people who need transplants: Facing grinding poverty, some Europeans are seeking to sell their kidneys, lungs, bone marrow or corneas, experts say…. The spread of illegal organ […]
Archive | Property Rights
Neil Armstrong on Private Spaceflight
It appears that earlier reports that Neil Armstrong opposes private manned spaceflight are incorrect. The first man to walk on the Moon actually welcomes private “newcomers” in the field. It’s worth mentioning that Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, is a longtime advocate of private spaceflight and private property rights in […]
Making the Case for Organ Markets
New Zealand economist Eric Crampton recently posted an interesting interview on organ markets that he did with Radio New Zealand. Like the United States, New Zealand faces a shortage of organs available for transplant, as a result of which many people die before appropriate organs can be found for them. Crampton describes several types of […]
State Constitutional Free Speech Vis-a-Vis Private Landowners
Apropos the post about the New Jersey homeowners’ association case, here’s a quick summary, as of a few years ago, of the approaches taken by the few states that have applied their state free speech clauses to limit not just government action but also some private landowner action: 1. Under California law, large multi-store shopping […]
N.J. Supreme Court: Homeowners’ Association May Not Ban Homeowners From Displaying Political Signs
So holds today’s opinion in Mazdabrook Commons Homeowners’ Ass’n v. Khan (N.J. June 13, 2012), interpreting the New Jersey Constitution. The New Jersey Supreme Court is one of the few state courts that has interpreted its state constitution as restricting at least some private property owners, such as privately owned shopping malls and private universities. […]
House Republicans’ Anti-Market, Anti-Environmental Fishery Policy
There is substantial theoretical and empirical evidence that property-based management schemes, such as catch-shares, prevent fishery collapse and ensure sustainability. The creation of property rights in ecological resources is also a principled conservative alternative to centralized regulation. Yet somehow a majority of House Republicans were bamboozled into voting to bar funding for further implementation of […]
Addressing “Extremer Extremists”
Like many of the other bloggers and readers here at the VC, I hold many extreme political views – “extreme” in the sense that they are distant from those of most of the general public. I’m probably among the most libertarian 1-2 percent of the American population. On the other hand, there are clearly libertarians […]
Adventures in Asset Forfeiture
By Ilya Somin on May 21, 2012 12:43 pm in Asset Forfeiture, Due Process Clause Property Rights, Property Rights
Asset forfeiture laws in many states allow the police to seize property that has supposedly been used to commit a crime, and then keep the proceeds for themselves. Often, these laws victimize people who have not been convicted of any crime, and indeed did not even know that their property might have been misused. They […]
Asset Forfeiture Abuse
Radley Balko reports on fairly severe asset forfeiture abuse in Wisconsin. In short, after a woman’s son was arrested, the police told her she had to pay for his bail in cash (which was untrue). Then, when she showed up with the money, most of which she had just withdrawn from ATMs, the police seized […]
Fifth Circuit Rules that Due Process Clause Property Rights Cases Can be Filed in Federal Court
By Ilya Somin on May 17, 2012 3:29 pm in Due Process Clause Property Rights, Property Rights, Regulatory Takings
In the recent case of Bowlby v. City of Aberdeen, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals just ruled that Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause property rights claims can be filed in federal court, despite the fact that the Supreme Court’s 1985 Williamson County decision bars many Takings Clause property rights claims from federal courts. Robert […]
Eminent Domain Abuse in Virginia
By Ilya Somin on May 15, 2012 11:20 am in Blight, Eminent Domain, Kelo, Post-Kelo Reform, Property Rights
Richmond Times-Dispatch columnist A. Barton Hinkle recently published this piece on a case of eminent domain abuse in Virginia: As a general rule, progressives do not get worked up about property rights the way conservatives do. This is a mistake — as a case out of Norfolk shows. To the progressive eye, property is bound […]
Eminent Domain and the Keystone Pipeline Project
By Ilya Somin on May 9, 2012 3:06 pm in Energy, Environment, Kelo, Post-Kelo Reform, Property Rights
The New York Times has an article describing how the TransCanada corporation is using eminent domain to forcibly acquire property to build the Keystone oil pipeline: When the TransCanada men first came, Julia Trigg Crawford said, they were polite. They offered money. Seven thousand dollars to let the Keystone XL pipeline cross her family’s 600-acre […]
Libertarianism and Absolute Property Rights
Although I’m a strong advocate of property rights, I agree with most of what Georgetown political philosopher Jason Brennan says on the subject at the Bleeding Heart Libertarian blog: The left believes that libertarians believe: Property Rights No Matter What: People are self-owners. Respecting their self-ownership requires a particular kind of laissez-faire property-rights regime. We […]
Ensuring “Just Compensation” for Takings of Property with Valuable Potential Future Uses
Famed property scholar Richard Epstein recently wrote an interesting post on an important Just Compensation Clause case that the Supreme Court is now considering whether to take: [W]hen government [condemns private property] … it must pay just compensation to the landowner for the value of the property taken. That guarantee will, however, surely be eviscerated […]
Supreme Court Denies Cert in Important Rent Control Takings Case
The Supreme Court today decided not to hear Harmon v. Kimmel, an important case addressing the question of whether rent control can ever amount to a taking requiring compensation under the Fifth Amendment. I previously blogged about the case in this post, where I urged the Court to consider the issue, and rule that rent […]