Property Rights in Texas

by Timothy Sandefur

My article, Don't Mess With Property Rights in Texas: How The State Constitution Protects Property Owners in the Wake of Kelo, in the current issue of the A.B.A. Real Property, Probate, And Trust Journal, is now available on line. In it, I argue that the Texas Constitutions' authors did not intend for "public use" to be interpreted broadly, and that Texas Supreme Court decisions holding otherwise suffer from some unusually obvious errors.

In Western Seafood v. City of Freeport, now pending in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, PLF filed a brief asking the Court to send the case to the Texas Supreme Court for resolution under state law. So we may see whether my argument finds any support in the Lone Star State.