Articles

PLF urges SCOTUS review of Hurricane Katrina flooding case

October 25, 2018 | By JEREMY TALCOTT

By any measure, Hurricane Katrina was a disastrous natural catastrophe. But for many landowners in St. Bernard Parish, what might have been a damaging but survivable storm was transformed into total devastation by a series of government actions and omissions stretching back decades. Last week, we filed this amicus brief asking the Supreme Court to ...

Articles

PLF asks Supreme Court to revive property rights protections

June 22, 2018 | By CHRISTINA MARTIN

Yesterday, PLF filed a petition asking the Supreme Court to review a decision that diminishes property rights by throwing unnecessary obstacles to raising Fifth Amendment claims. The story behind this case began many years ago, when Simone and Lyder Johnson set out to build their dream home, along with some other possible residential development, ...

Articles

CA Senate considers eminent domain reform

May 02, 2018 | By JEREMY TALCOTT

We’ve written extensively about negative developments in California eminent domain use over the years, but today we filed this comment letter with the California Senate Judiciary Committee in support of a positive reform attempt, SB 1167. SB 1167 would require governments to issue a final offer of compensation whenever they initiate condemn ...

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PLF asks Michigan Supreme Court to stop theft by tax collectors

January 12, 2018 | By CHRISTINA MARTIN

For the sake of justice, the Michigan Supreme Court should step in and secure to Uri Rafaeli, Andre Ohanessian, and people across Michigan what rightfully belongs to them. … ...

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Horrifying government overreach : PLF asks Supreme Court to hear challenge to cemetery access law

October 31, 2017 | By J. DAVID BREEMER

Rose Mary Knick owns a quiet, 90-acre, stone-fenced farm in rural Pennsylvania. The parcel is bounded on all sides by old stone walls and no trespassing signs at various intervals. According to the local government, it also contains an ancient burial ground of some sort… … ...

Articles

Weekly litigation report — September 2, 2017

September 02, 2017 | By JAMES BURLING

This week’s topics: Can the executive branch be the judicial branch? When is “just compensation” unjust? Meet the new boss, same as the old boss? … ...

Articles

Should a business owner recover economic damages when the government condemns his property?

August 30, 2017 | By BRIAN HODGES

In a brief filed earlier today, PLF attorneys urge the U.S. Supreme Court to answer this important question concerning the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee that property shall not be taken without payment of just compensation. In the past, the U.S. Supreme Court instructed that a dispossessed owner must be put in “as good position pecuniaril ...

Articles

Are there federal reserved rights to groundwater?

August 08, 2017 | By DAMIEN SCHIFF

That is the question being asked of the United States Supreme Court in two cert petitions filed last month, Desert Water Authority & Coachella Valley Water District v. Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians. Succinctly, the doctrine of federal reserved water rights creates a presumption that when the federal government withdraws land from the p ...

Articles

Government evades property rights by stalling

July 07, 2017 | By CHRISTINA MARTIN

For an example of how impossible it can be for property owners to ripen (i.e., get a court to hear) a takings claim, look no further than the decision today in GolfRock, LLC v. Lee County.  Even when the government regulates away the use of your land, it can sometimes be very difficult to get courts … ...