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

Law Commons

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

Articles 1 - 24 of 24

Full-Text Articles in Law

Vol. 5 No. 1, Fall 2013; "Correcting" The Foreclosure Crisis?, Matthew Broucek Dec 2013

Vol. 5 No. 1, Fall 2013; "Correcting" The Foreclosure Crisis?, Matthew Broucek

Northern Illinois Law Review Supplement

Mortgage Resolution Partners, a venture capitalist firm based out of San Francisco, has been visiting with state and local governments across the country. Mortgage Resolution Partners proposes that eminent domain can, and should, be used to seize mortgages and refinance them in an attempt to correct the United States' foreclosure crisis. This article identifies and analyzes the policy issues and constitutional concerns that are inherent in the plan. The most critical constitutional concerns with the plan implicate the Takings Clause, the Contracts Clause, and the Dormant Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution.


Pretextual Takings: Of Private Developers, Local Governments, And Impermissible Favoritism, Daniel B. Kelly Nov 2013

Pretextual Takings: Of Private Developers, Local Governments, And Impermissible Favoritism, Daniel B. Kelly

Daniel B Kelly

Since Kelo v. City of New London, the preferred litigation strategy for challenging a condemnation that benefits a private party is to allege that the taking is pretextual. This Article contends that, although pretextual takings are socially undesirable, the current judicial test for identifying such takings is problematic. Yet an alternative, intent-based test might be impracticable, as well as underinclusive: condemnors often have mixed motives, particularly when confronted with a firm's credible threat to relocate. Instead, the Article develops a framework that emphasizes informational differences between local governments and private developers. When the government lacks information regarding the optimal site …


The Limitations Of Majoritarian Land Assembly, Daniel B. Kelly Nov 2013

The Limitations Of Majoritarian Land Assembly, Daniel B. Kelly

Daniel B Kelly

In their article, Land Assembly Districts, Professors Michael Heller and Rick Hills address the collective action problem arising from excessively fragmented land. They propose an innovative solution: Land Assembly Districts (or LADs). In this Article, I raise several concerns regarding LADs in particular and majoritarian land assembly in general. LADs rely on majority voting by a neighborhood's existing owners. Yet majority voting, coupled with the possibility of heterogeneity, means that LADs may both approve socially undesirable assemblies and disapprove socially desirable ones. LADs also permit owners to bargain over a project's surplus. But such bargaining creates additional costs for developers, …


Planning As Public Use?, Nicole Stelle Garnett Nov 2013

Planning As Public Use?, Nicole Stelle Garnett

Nicole Stelle Garnett

This short Essay explores the Supreme Court's suggestion in Kelo v. New London that public, participatory planning may be a constitutional safe harbor that separates impermissible private takings from presumptively valid public ones. After briefly reviewing the Court's discussion of the planning that preceded the Kelo litigation, the Essay examines how Kelo's emphasis on planning departs from standard rational basis review of economic policies and asks what such a departure means for future public-use litigants. The Essay then explores three possible practical benefits of a constitutional rule that encourages the government to engage in detailed planning before exercising the power …


The Neglected Political Economy Of Eminent Domain, Nicole Stelle Garnett Nov 2013

The Neglected Political Economy Of Eminent Domain, Nicole Stelle Garnett

Nicole Stelle Garnett

This Article challenges a foundational assumption about eminent domain - namely, that owners are systematically undercompensated because they receive only fair market value for their property. The Article shows that, in fact, scholars have overstated the undercompensation problem because they have focused on the compensation required by the Constitution, rather than on the actual mechanics of eminent domain. The Article examines three ways that Takers (i.e., non-judicial actors in the eminent domain process) minimize undercompensation. First, Takers may avoid taking high-subjective-value properties. Second, Takers frequently must pay more compensation in the form of relocation assistance. Third, Takers and property owners …


The Constitutionality Of Using Eminent Domain To Condemn Underwater Mortgage Loans, Katharine Roller Oct 2013

The Constitutionality Of Using Eminent Domain To Condemn Underwater Mortgage Loans, Katharine Roller

Michigan Law Review

One of the most visible and devastating components of the financial crisis that began in 2007 and 2008 has been a nationwide foreclosure crisis. In the wake of ultimately ineffective attempts at federal policy intervention to address the foreclosure crisis, a private firm has proposed that counties and municipalities use their power of eminent domain to seize “underwater” mortgage loans—-mortgage loans in which the debt exceeds the value of the underlying property—-from the private securitization trusts that currently hold them. Having condemned the mortgage loans, the counties and municipalities would reduce the debt to a level below the value of …


Untangling The Circuit Splits Regarding Cell Tower Siting Policy And 47 U.S.C. § 332(C)(7): When Is A Denial Of One Effectively A Prohibition On All? , Lucas R. White Jun 2013

Untangling The Circuit Splits Regarding Cell Tower Siting Policy And 47 U.S.C. § 332(C)(7): When Is A Denial Of One Effectively A Prohibition On All? , Lucas R. White

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.


Michigan Supreme Court Overturns Landmark Eminent Domain Case, Patricia E. Salkin May 2013

Michigan Supreme Court Overturns Landmark Eminent Domain Case, Patricia E. Salkin

Patricia E. Salkin

No abstract provided.


Irresponsible Legislating: Reeling In The Aftermath Of Kelo, Patricia E. Salkin May 2013

Irresponsible Legislating: Reeling In The Aftermath Of Kelo, Patricia E. Salkin

Patricia E. Salkin

No abstract provided.


U.S. Supreme Court’S 2004 Term Includes Significant Land Use Decisions With A Trilogy Of Takings Cases, Patricia E. Salkin May 2013

U.S. Supreme Court’S 2004 Term Includes Significant Land Use Decisions With A Trilogy Of Takings Cases, Patricia E. Salkin

Patricia E. Salkin

No abstract provided.


Zoning And The Vested Right To Use Property: There Ought To Be A Right! , Hugh Breckenridge May 2013

Zoning And The Vested Right To Use Property: There Ought To Be A Right! , Hugh Breckenridge

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.


The Relationship Of Just Compensation To The Land Use Regulatory Power: An Analysis And Proposal , Thomas P. Clark, Arthur G. Kidman May 2013

The Relationship Of Just Compensation To The Land Use Regulatory Power: An Analysis And Proposal , Thomas P. Clark, Arthur G. Kidman

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.


Diminution In Value Is Not Inverse Condemnation: Hfh, Ltd. V. Superior Court , Daniel J. Gavin May 2013

Diminution In Value Is Not Inverse Condemnation: Hfh, Ltd. V. Superior Court , Daniel J. Gavin

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.


Application Of The Abstention Doctrine To Inverse Condemnation Actions In Federal Court , John T. Harris May 2013

Application Of The Abstention Doctrine To Inverse Condemnation Actions In Federal Court , John T. Harris

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.


Agency Determination Concerning Delegation Of Sovereign's Pipeline Eminent Domain Power To Public Utility Interstate Pipeline Based Upon "Public Need" Comports With Dormant Commerce Clause: Substantial Evidence Review Applied To Public Need Determination: Lakehead Pipeline Company V. Illinois Commerce Commission, S. Ellyn Farley Apr 2013

Agency Determination Concerning Delegation Of Sovereign's Pipeline Eminent Domain Power To Public Utility Interstate Pipeline Based Upon "Public Need" Comports With Dormant Commerce Clause: Substantial Evidence Review Applied To Public Need Determination: Lakehead Pipeline Company V. Illinois Commerce Commission, S. Ellyn Farley

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.


Strategies For Making Sea-Level Rise Adaptation Tools 'Takings-Proof', Michael Allan Wolf Apr 2013

Strategies For Making Sea-Level Rise Adaptation Tools 'Takings-Proof', Michael Allan Wolf

UF Law Faculty Publications

While the costs of some Sea-Level Rise (SLR) adaptation tools are undeniably daunting, the American legal system poses an additional, potentially budget-busting impediment — the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Officials at all governmental strata and from all three branches should keep the demands made by the Takings Clause, as interpreted by the judiciary, in mind as they choose tools from the diverse SLR-adaptation toolbox, as they justify their choices to the electorate and other constituencies, as they put those tools to use, and as they defend that use from litigants claiming abuse. This …


Constitutional Limitations On Land Use Controls, Environmental Regulations And Governmental Exactions, 2013 Edition, Garrett Power Mar 2013

Constitutional Limitations On Land Use Controls, Environmental Regulations And Governmental Exactions, 2013 Edition, Garrett Power

Garrett Power

This electronic book is published in a searchable PDF format as a part of the E-scholarship Repository of the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. It is an “open content” casebook intended for classroom use in courses in Constitutional Law, Land Use Control, and Environmental Law and. It consists of 130 odd judicial opinions (most rendered by the U.S. Supreme Court) carefully selected from the two hundred years of American constitutional history which address the clash between public sovereignty and private property. The text considers both the personal right to liberty and the personal right in property. …


Fear And Loathing On The California Coastline: Are Coastal Commission Property Exactions Constitutional?, Mitchell F. Disney Jan 2013

Fear And Loathing On The California Coastline: Are Coastal Commission Property Exactions Constitutional?, Mitchell F. Disney

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.


Nollan V. California Coastal Commission: You Can't Always Get What You Want, But Sometimes You Get What You Need, Timothy A. Bittle Jan 2013

Nollan V. California Coastal Commission: You Can't Always Get What You Want, But Sometimes You Get What You Need, Timothy A. Bittle

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.


Eminent Domain For The Seizure Of Underwater Mortgages, Sarah Thompson Jan 2013

Eminent Domain For The Seizure Of Underwater Mortgages, Sarah Thompson

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform Caveat

Like many cities in the United States, Richmond, California suffered greatly from the recent mortgage crisis. The foreclosure crisis hit Richmond hard in 2009, when more than 2,000 homes in Richmond went into foreclosure. This figure is especially shocking given that there were 18,659 owner-occupied housing units in the city at that time. In 2012, the city saw an additional 914 foreclosures and a foreclosure rate of thirty out of 1,000 homes (well above the national average of thirteen of every 1,000 homes). Today, it is reported that nearly forty-six percent of homes in Richmond are “underwater,” meaning that what …


Constitutional Limitations On Land Use Controls, Environmental Regulations And Governmental Exactions, 2013 Edition, Garrett Power Jan 2013

Constitutional Limitations On Land Use Controls, Environmental Regulations And Governmental Exactions, 2013 Edition, Garrett Power

Book Gallery

This electronic book is published in a searchable PDF format as a part of the E-scholarship Repository of the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. It is an “open content” casebook intended for classroom use in courses in Constitutional Law, Land Use Control, and Environmental Law and. It consists of 130 odd judicial opinions (most rendered by the U.S. Supreme Court) carefully selected from the two hundred years of American constitutional history which address the clash between public sovereignty and private property. The text considers both the personal right to liberty and the personal right in property. …


A Federalist Blessing In Disguise: From National Inaction To Local Action On Underwater Mortgages, Robert C. Hockett, John Vlahoplus Jan 2013

A Federalist Blessing In Disguise: From National Inaction To Local Action On Underwater Mortgages, Robert C. Hockett, John Vlahoplus

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

While it is widely recognized that the mortgage debt overhang left by the housing price bubble and bust continues to operate as the principal drag upon U.S. macroeconomic recovery, few seem to appreciate just how locally concentrated the problem is. This paper takes the measure of the national mortgage debt overhang problem as a cluster of local problems warranting local action. It then elaborates on one form of such action that the localized nature of the ongoing mortgage crisis justifies - use of municipal eminent domain authority to purchase underwater loans, then modify them in a manner that benefits debtors, …


Paying Paul And Robbing No One: An Eminent Domain Solution For Underwater Mortgage Debt, Robert C. Hockett Jan 2013

Paying Paul And Robbing No One: An Eminent Domain Solution For Underwater Mortgage Debt, Robert C. Hockett

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

In the view of many analysts, the best way to assist “underwater” homeowners — those who owe more on their mortgages than their houses are worth — is to reduce the principal on their home loans. Yet in the case of privately securitized mortgages, such write-downs are almost impossible to carry out, since loan modifications on the scale necessitated by the housing market crash would require collective action by a multitude of geographically dispersed security holders. The solution, this study suggests, is for state and municipal governments to use their eminent domain powers to buy up and restructure underwater mortgages, …


Eminent Domain: The Solution To The Foreclosure Crisis Or Overstepping Government Boundaries?, Anne T. T. Jensen Jan 2013

Eminent Domain: The Solution To The Foreclosure Crisis Or Overstepping Government Boundaries?, Anne T. T. Jensen

Law Student Publications

This article will provide both an analysis of the legal concept of eminent domain and its likelihood of success in resuscitating real estate markets in towns like San Bernandino. Sections Two and Three will explore the background of the mortgage crisis and provide an in-depth description of the eminent domain proposal by the Mortgage Resolution Partners ("MRP"). Section Four takes a deeper look into the state and federal precedent on a municipality's power to use eminent domain, revealing that the definition of "legitimate public purpose" would likely apply to the seizing of mortgages. Finally, Section Five will focus on the …