Articles

Tomorrow, I will be speaking at the annual LSI Regulatory Takings conference about the doctrine of unconstitutional conditions.  This doctrine holds that the government cannot condition the provision of a discretionary benefit (e.g., a permit, license, grant, contract, etc.) upon a requirement that a person give up a constitutionally protected rig ...

One way that PLF can assure that its property rights victories have a long-lasting impact is to “connect the dots” between past cases and current controversies.  A good example is the Washington Court of Appeals’ 1999 decision in Honesty In Environmental Analysis and Legislation v. Seattle, which stands out as the first Washingto ...

Earlier today, Division One of Washington’s Court of Appeals issued a published decision in Birnbaum v. Pierce County, a case that asked whether a landowner could recover damages for government misfeasance during the permit review process. … ...

Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court denied PLF’s petition for a writ of certiorari in the case, Kitsap Alliance of Property Owners v. Central Puget Sound Growth Management Hearings Board – a case that challenged Kitsap County’s adoption of regulations that require shoreline property owners who seek building permits to dedicate signific ...

Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the temporary takings case, Arkansas Game & Fish Commission v. United States. Our friends at the Cato Institute wrote this article highlighting the importance of the case to private landowners. … ...

This morning, the U.S. Supreme Court decided to take review of the important property rights case, Arkansas Game & Fish Commission v. United States.  This case asks whether government actions that result in intermittent physical invasion and occupation of another person’s property over a period of 8 years give rise to a claim for damage ...

Earlier today, the U.S. Supreme Court denied PLF’s petition for a writ of certiorari in the case, Kitsap Alliance of Property Owners v. Central Puget Sound Growth Management Hearings Board.  The petition asked the Court to consider whether a Kitsap County regulation requiring that shoreline property owners who seek building permits dedicate ...

At the time PLF opened its office in the Pacific Northwest, Washington’s courts had adopted an extremely pro-regulation and anti-property rights stance toward regulatory takings law.  This was primarily due to the fact that the courts were operating under the notion that any regulation of private property that is designed to protect people f ...

In one of our earliest efforts in the Pacific Northwest, PLF participated in several cases challenging the constitutionality of a Seattle ordinance that severely restricted the use of low income rental properties. Throughout the 1980s, the City of Seattle, faced with a booming redevelopment market, adopted a series of ordinances that were intended ...