I’ll be talking with Armstrong & Getty at 8 this morning about the efforts by California local governments to use eminent domain to seize “underwater” mortgages. You can listen online here. Update: You can listen to the podcast recording here. … ...
California Assembly Bill 823 will be heard next Monday in the state Assembly’s Natural Resources Committee. Since the bill will impose unconstitutional exactions on many if not all farmland development projects in California, PLF sent this letter to the author and committee this week. PLF does not take positions on pending legislation, bu ...
Individual Rights — Equality Under the Law Project The Supreme Court granted cert this week in the long-anticipated Township of Mount Holly v. Mount Holly Gardens Citizens in Action. We filed this amicus brief in favor of the petition (but not in favor of either party for reasons explained below.) As our blog post notes, … ...
Obamacare — Origination Clause Challenge We filed this reply brief in Sissel v. Sibelius, our challenge to Obamacare based on the failure of the revenue-raising measure to originate in the House of Representatives, as required by the Constitution’s Origination Clause. The case will move to oral argument sometime in 2014. Property R ...
As my colleague, Principal Attorney Timothy Sandefur wrote earlier this week, various groups and politicians within California are pushing to give government more generous (read evil) eminent domain powers. And lest you think this issue is merely a matter of esoteric legal debate, here’s yet another vexing example of a city abusing what ...
Last week, PLF filed an amicus curiae letter in the California Supreme Court, asking it to grant the Community Youth Athletic Center’s (CYAC) petition for review of an abusive scheme to transfer its private property to a developer for its private business venture. Shocking as it may seem, similar transfers happens across the country and ...
The Constitution requires the government to pay just compensation when it seizes private property for public use. However, if the City of Perris has its way, cities will be allowed to pay less than fair market value for private property they seize merely by amending their general plans. The California Supreme Court is set to … ...
Recently we received a response to our amicus brief, filed in City of Perris v. Stamper, a case pending before the California Supreme Court. The National Federal of Independent Business joined us on the brief, which argued that cities can’t avoid paying fair market value for private property seized through creative general plan amendments. W ...
Eminent domain—the sovereign’s authority to take private property without the owner’s consent—is a terrible and awesome power, which is why the nation’s founders placed two key restrictions on its exercise: that government shall not take property unless it is for a valid public use and just compensation is paid. Those restrict ...