Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Law Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 13 of 13

Full-Text Articles in Law

Requiem For Regulation, Garrett Power Dec 2013

Requiem For Regulation, Garrett Power

Garrett Power

This comment reviews U.S. Supreme Court decisions over the past 100 years which have considered the constitutional limitations on governmental powers. It finds that at the three-quarter mark of the 20th century, a remarkable set of Court precedents had swollen the regulatory powers of governments while shrinking private rights to property and contract. But since the Reagan years, a more conservative Court has undertaken to curtail governmental activity in general, and to limit federal, state, and local planning in particular. A number of 5-4 decisions expanded private property rights and contracted the scope of the federal “commerce power.” The comment …


Property Rights, The "Gang Of Four" & The Fifth Vote: Stop The Beach From Renourishment, Inc. V. Florida Department Of Environmental Protection (U.S. Supreme Court 2010), Garrett Power Jul 2012

Property Rights, The "Gang Of Four" & The Fifth Vote: Stop The Beach From Renourishment, Inc. V. Florida Department Of Environmental Protection (U.S. Supreme Court 2010), Garrett Power

Garrett Power

In 2010 The U.S. Supreme Court decided the case of Stop the Beach Renourishment v. Florida Department of Environmental Protection (SBR v. Fla. EPA). Justice Antonin Scalia announced the judgment of the Court. All Justices agreed that Florida had not violated the Takings Clause of the Federal Constitution’s Fifth Amendment. But then in a plurality opinion Justice Scalia joined by the Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Thomas and Alito proposed profound changes in the law of “regulatory takings.” As the spokesman for the Court’s property rights absolutists Scalia advanced two novel legal propositions. First he argued that federal courts had …


Baltimore After The War Of 1812: Where Robert Mills Met His Waterloo And When James A. Buchanan Broke The Bank, Garrett Power Jun 2012

Baltimore After The War Of 1812: Where Robert Mills Met His Waterloo And When James A. Buchanan Broke The Bank, Garrett Power

Garrett Power

In 1815 Baltimore City was boom town. Its militiamen had repulsed the British sea invasion and presaged an end to the War of 1812. Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo in 1815 signaled an end to European wars. Freedom of the seas had been restored. The Baltimore “Clipper” was the best sailing ship on the ocean. Baltimore looked to become the country’s leading exporter of grain, flour, and tobacco. Merchant James A. Buchanan, a partner in one of the country’s greatest shipping firms, had been named President of the Baltimore Branch of the Second National Bank of the United States. Civic leaders …


Palazzolo V. Rhode Island: Takings, Investment-Backed Expectations, And Slander Of Title, Garrett Power Oct 2009

Palazzolo V. Rhode Island: Takings, Investment-Backed Expectations, And Slander Of Title, Garrett Power

Garrett Power

No abstract provided.


Regulatory Takings: A Chronicle Of The Construction Of A Constitutional Concept, Garrett Power Sep 2009

Regulatory Takings: A Chronicle Of The Construction Of A Constitutional Concept, Garrett Power

Garrett Power

In the American constitutional system the sovereign has the power to enact “regulations which are necessary to the common good and general welfare.” But the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution proscribes that : “No person shall be . . . deprived of . . . property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.” And the question of whether a sovereign regulation has “taken” private property without just compensation has puzzled the United States Supreme Court for over two hundred years in over four hundred cases. This paper chronicles …


The Residential Segregation Of Baltimore's Jews: Restrictive Covenants Or Gentlemen's Agreement?, Garrett Power Sep 2009

The Residential Segregation Of Baltimore's Jews: Restrictive Covenants Or Gentlemen's Agreement?, Garrett Power

Garrett Power

No abstract provided.


High Society: The Building Height Limitation On Baltimore's Mt. Vernon Place, Garrett Power Sep 2009

High Society: The Building Height Limitation On Baltimore's Mt. Vernon Place, Garrett Power

Garrett Power

The "Anti Skyscraper" Law of 1904 is often described as Maryland's first zoning law and one of the first zoning laws in the United States. But there is more. Behind this dusty statute is a story of speculation, selfishness, collusion and changing social values, which takes a century and a half to unfold and which has something to say about the role of government in regulating the use of land.


Entail In Two Cities: A Comparative Study Of Long Term Leases In Birmingham, England And Baltimore, Maryland 1700-1900, Garrett Power Sep 2009

Entail In Two Cities: A Comparative Study Of Long Term Leases In Birmingham, England And Baltimore, Maryland 1700-1900, Garrett Power

Garrett Power

Urban planning is often thought of as a conscious collection of governmental choices made as to the shape and social structure of the city. Thoughtful and forward looking public policies are viewed as mapping out the future. Overlooked or understated in this estimation are the less purposeful influences on the urban morphology and city sociology. This paper examines one such influence, land tenure, by taking a comparative look at the residential development of Birmingham, England, and Baltimore, Maryland, between 1700 and 1900. Birmingham and Baltimore both housed their working class populations in densely-packed dwellings with shared party walls. And both …


Apartheid Baltimore Style: The Residential Segregation Ordinances Of 1910-1913, Garrett Power Sep 2009

Apartheid Baltimore Style: The Residential Segregation Ordinances Of 1910-1913, Garrett Power

Garrett Power

On May 15, 1911, Baltimore Mayor J. Barry Mahool signed into law an ordinance for “preserving the peace, preventing conflict and ill feeling between the white and colored races in Baltimore City.” This ordinance provided for the use of separate blocks by African American and whites and was the first such law in the nation directly aimed at segregating black and white homeowners. This article considers the historical significance of Baltimore’s first housing segregation law.


Advocates At Cross-Purposes: The Briefs On Behalf Of Zoning In The Supreme Court, Garrett Power Sep 2009

Advocates At Cross-Purposes: The Briefs On Behalf Of Zoning In The Supreme Court, Garrett Power

Garrett Power

No abstract provided.


The Unwisdom Of Allowing City Growth To Work Out Its Own Destiny, Garrett Power Sep 2009

The Unwisdom Of Allowing City Growth To Work Out Its Own Destiny, Garrett Power

Garrett Power

No abstract provided.


Parceling Out Land In Baltimore, 1632-1796, Garrett Power Sep 2009

Parceling Out Land In Baltimore, 1632-1796, Garrett Power

Garrett Power

No abstract provided.


Pyrrhic Victory: Daniel Goldman's Defeat Of Zoning In The Maryland Court Of Appeals, Garrett Power Sep 2009

Pyrrhic Victory: Daniel Goldman's Defeat Of Zoning In The Maryland Court Of Appeals, Garrett Power

Garrett Power

Nowadays government regulation of the use of urban land is taken for granted. Such was not always the case. Some sixty years ago, the Maryland Court of Appeals held it unconstitutional for Zoning Commissioner J. Frank Crowther to deny a request for a permit to operate a tailor shop in the basement of a Eutaw Place home. This paper examines the case of Goldman v. Crowther. Goldman's story reads like a comic melodrama with a tragic ending. But the saga also illuminates the social condition - it sheds light and casts shadows on the practice of xenophobia, the nature of …