Articles

Cailfornia Supreme Court Restricts Asset Forfeiture Laws

July 27, 2007 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

by Timothy Sandefur Along with eminent domain, one of the worst abuses of property rights in America is the concept of civil asset forfeiture. Here is a good article explaining the concept, by Roger Pilon of the Cato Institute. (And a more in-depth one.) On Thursday, the California Supreme Court restricted the abuse of civil … ...

Articles

Big Box Takings

July 26, 2007 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Volokh Conspiracy blogger Ilya Somin has an important post here about the increasing use of eminent doamin to transfer land to companies like Wal-Mart and Costco to construct stores: they very likely cause more economic harm than benefit, as I have argued in great detail here and here. In addition, they tend to victimize poor … ...

Articles

More Implications of Gallenthin

July 19, 2007 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

The New Jersey Eminent Domain Law Blog has another story about an eminent domain victory, thanks in part to the Gallenthin decision. … ...

Articles

Eminent Domain Victory in Missouri

July 19, 2007 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Gideon Kanner has news of a victory for property owners in a state that is particularly bad when it comes to eminent domain for redevelopment. Here is the court's decision. Kanner writes, So what we have here is another right-to-take case from a state supreme court, and another rejection of the Kelo anything-goes approach.  So … ...

Articles

The State Can Take Your Dreams, Too

July 19, 2007 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

by Timothy Sandefur Debra J. Saunders, an excellent writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, had this article in the Sunday paper focusing on the Revelli Tire Store case from Oakland. Excerpt: Oakland City Attorney John Russo bristles at the notion that Oakland kicked Revelli out of his property. "I believe that the Revelli case, for … ...

Articles

Reframing Eminent Domain

July 19, 2007 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

by Timothy Sandefur David A. Dana has a new paper, "Reframing Eminent Domain: Unsupported Advocacy, Ambiguous Economics, and the Case for a New Public Use Test," posted on SSRN.com. I have only scanned it, but I see some interesting observations in his conclusions: is there some other kind of eminent domain reform that might predictably ...

Articles

Court Ruling Thwarts Eminent Domain

July 19, 2007 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

by Timothy Sandefur The Asbury Park (N.J.) Press has been following eminent domain controversies in New Jersey quite thoroughly in the past couple of years. In Monday's issue, attorney Peter Dickson had a letter to the editor regarding the Gallenthin case. Excerpt: We all might as well get used to it. The days of using … ...

Articles

Bogus Reporting on Prop. 207

July 19, 2007 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Leonard Gilroy at the Reason Foundation has an excellent blog post about the Arizona Republic's pseudo-story about the apocalyptic terrors of government planners when it comes to Prop. 207 actually working to protect people's rights. Excerpt: Prop 207 hasn't done anything to restrict cities' ability to plan, create special districts ...

Articles

Disaster! Government Respecting Individual Rights! Oh No!

July 14, 2007 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

by Timothy Sandefur Eric de Place at the Sightline Institute has a blog post on various property rights matters that is typically Chicken Little about how respecting the rights of people who own property will lead to social ruin, or, in his words "a disaster flick in slow motion." For example, in the town of … ...