Law Commons^™

Disclaiming Property, Michael Pappas

Faculty Scholarship

Can Congress pick and choose when it must follow the Constitution? One would expect not, and yet the Supreme Court has allowed it to do so. In multiple statutory programs, Congress has disclaimed constitutional property protections for valuable interests that otherwise serve as property. The result is billions of dollars’ worth of “disclaimed property” that can be bought, sold, mortgaged, or leased, but that can also be revoked at any moment without due process or just compensation.

Disclaimed property already represents a great source of value, and property disclaimers are at the core of major recent policies ranging from natural …

Litz V. Maryland Department Of The Environment: Maryland’S Decision That Inaction Can Support An Inverse Condemnation Claim, Kerri Morrison

Maryland Law Review Online

No abstract provided.

Response To The Influence Of Exile: Three Stories, Bill Quigley

Maryland Law Review Online

When I read Professor Sara Rankin’s article, The Influence of Exile,[I was reminded of three recent stories of how law, government, and business worked together to try to exile the homeless in our community. Though all parties continuously profess to be concerned only with the well-being of homeless people themselves, the laws transparently marginalize them. Though the following three stories about the impact of these laws are local to New Orleans, Louisiana, I am absolutely sure there are similar stories of similar happenings in most communities across the nation.

Professor Rankin’s article examines the very big picture …

Shreve V. Baltimore: A Municipal Misstep Leads To A City Forever Beautiful, Laura Tallerico

Legal History Publications

This paper explores municipal decision making in condemnation proceedings and whether or not the public use requirement protects individual property owners from poor municipal decision-making. When condemners are allowed to take in fee simple absolute, their decisions have lasting effects on property. The decisions of the Baltimore City government in its creation of a water system illustrate why some may be queasy about this. However, this may actually be desirable because it allows for municipalities, in particular, to both achieve the public purpose necessary at the time of condemnation and to improve in the future rather than go through the …

Requiem For Regulation, Garrett Power

Faculty Scholarship

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 …

Constitutional Limitations On Land Use Controls, Environmental Regulations And Governmental Exactions (2011 Edition), Garrett Power

Faculty Scholarship

This electronic book is published in a searchable PDF format as a part of the E-scholarship Repository of the University of Maryland School of Law. It is an “open content” casebook intended for classroom use in courses in Land Use Control, Environmental Law and Constitutional Law. It consists of cases carefully selected from the two hundred years of American constitutional history which address the clash between public sovereignty and private property. It considers both the personal right to liberty and the personal right in property. The text consists of non-copyrighted material and readers are free to use it or re-mix …

The Baltimore Development Corporation: A Case Study Of Economic Development Corporations, Shadow Government, And The Fight For Public Transparency And Accountability, Maximilian Tondro

Legal History Publications

This paper explores the limited public accountability of local quasi-public development corporations in negotiating and implementing public redevelopment projects by examining the history of the Baltimore Development Corporation (BDC). For most of its two-decade existence the BDC has strenuously resisted all public inquiry and oversight, a tradition inherited from its predecessors that originated as private business-led entities performing tasks under contract with Baltimore City (City). Like other similar quasi-public local development corporations, the BDC justified its need for secrecy as necessary to ensure the BDC’s effectiveness and efficiency in negotiating with private businesses on redevelopment projects. This assertion that a …

State Of Maryland V. Louis Hyman: Did Progressivism, Concern For Public Health, And The Great Baltimore Fire Influence The Court Of Appeals?, Justin Haas

Legal History Publications

In the latter half of the nineteenth century, increased immigration from eastern Europe and a growing garment industry in Baltimore led to vast growth in so-called sweatshops: cramped workspaces in which clothing was partially or completely sewn for market. As the sweatshops grew, integrated clothing factories were also emerging, finally becoming a real force in the Baltimore garment industry around the turn of the twentieth century. As the integrated factories grew, the workers joined in the growing organized labor movement, and then began to push for greater protections for the health and safety of workers, as well as fair wages. …

Caretti V Broring Building Company: The Sewering And Planning Of A City, Sheba Newman-Blount

Legal History Publications

Caretti v Broring Building Company was a case decided by the Court of Appeals of Maryland in 1926. Louis and Lucia Caretti sued the Broring Building Company in 1925 to enjoin them from polluting a stream that flowed through the Carettis’ property with sewage from their sewer system. The Carettis sued for an injunction to stop the operation of the sewer and further pollution of the stream. The Court of Appeals reversed the trial court ruling and decided in the Carettis’s favor, granting them an injunction against Broring.

The Carettis’ case occurred at a time when Baltimore was undergoing several …

Green V. Garrett: How The Economic Boom Of Professional Sports Helped To Create, And Destroy, Baltimore’S Memorial Stadium, Jordan Vardon

Legal History Publications

Buildings, like people, have lives all their own. They have beginnings, middles, ends, and even good and bad years. This project is a study of a building known by many names, including Venable Park, Mud Stadium, The Great White Elephant of 33rd St., The Old Gray Lady, and the World’s Largest Outdoor Insane Asylum, although for most of its life it was officially referred to as Memorial Stadium, located in Baltimore, Maryland.

The story of Memorial Stadium is really the story of those in the community that surround it. As the use and popularity of the Stadium grew, so too …

Constitutional Limitations On Land Use Controls, Environmental Regulations And Governmental Exactions (2010 Ed.), Garrett Power

Faculty Scholarship

This electronic book is published in a searchable PDF format as a part of the E-scholarship Repository of the University of Maryland School of Law. It is an “open content” casebook intended for classroom use in courses in Land Use Control, Environmental Law and Constitutional Law. It consists of cases carefully selected from the two hundred years of American constitutional history which address the clash between public sovereignty and private property. It considers both the personal right to liberty and the personal right in property. The text consists of non-copyrighted material and readers are free to use it or re-mix …

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

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

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

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Multiple Permits, Temporary Takings, And Just Compensation, Garrett Power

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Advent Of Zoning, Garrett Power

Faculty Scholarship

This essay looks at some of the lawyers and judges who were instrumental in the enactment and judicial approval of American zoning laws.

The Response Of Federal Legislation To Historic Preservation, Oscar S. Gray

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.