Property Law and Real Estate Commons^™

Charitable Deductions For Rail-Trail Conversions: Reconciling The Partial Interest Rule And The National Trails System Act, Scott Andrew Bowman, Danaya H. Rosenberg

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

This Article examines an undeveloped legal topic at the intersection of tax law and real property law: charitable deductions from income tax liability for donations of railroad corridors that are to be converted into recreational trails. The very popular rails-to-trails program assists in the conversion of abandoned railroad corridors into hiking and biking trails. However, the legal questions surrounding the property rights of these corridors have been complex and highly litigated. In 1983, Congress amended the National Trails System Act to provide a mechanism for facilitating these conversions, a process called railbanking. In essence, a railroad transfers its real property …

The Police Power And 'Public Use': Balancing The Public Interest Against Private Rights Through Principled Constitutional Distinctions, Christopher D. Supino

Student Award Winning Papers

No abstract provided.

The Houses That Eminent Domain And Housing Tax Credits Built: Imagining A Better New Orleans, Carol N. Brown

Law Faculty Publications

Proposals for investing in and rebuilding urban enclaves such as New Orleans are layered with controversy and difficulty. One of the most significant impediments to rebuilding New Orleans will be addressing the need to replenish the depleted rental housing market. Racial and economic integration of housing markets and appropriate use of private sector money to replenish the rental housing stock within a “reasonable” time period are indispensable components of a responsible revitalization and renewal plan. This Article contends that a combination of the smart exercise of eminent domain and of ”housing production subsidies” – housing tax credits – is necessary …

Kelo's Moral Failure, Laura S. Underkuffler

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

Presented at the 2004 Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference.

Takings: An Appreciative Retrospective, Eric R. Claeys

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

Presented at the 2005 Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference.

Time To Overturn Turney, Paul A. Lafata

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

The Demise Of Federal Takings Litigation, Stewart E. Sterk

William & Mary Law Review

For more than twenty years the Supreme Court has held that a federal takings claim is not ripe until the claimant seeks compensation in state court. The Court's recent opinion in San Remo Hotel, L.P. v. City & County of San Francisco establishes that the federal full faith and credit statute applies to federal takings claims. The Court itself recognized that its decision limits the availability of a federal forum for takings claims. In fact, however, claim preclusion doctrine-not considered or discussed by the Court-may result in more stringent limits on federal court review of takings claims than the Court's …

Privatizing Eminent Domain: The Delegation Of A Very Public Power To Private, Non-Profit And Charitable Corporations, Asmara Tekle Johnson

ExpressO

In an age of privatization of many governmental functions such as health care, prison management, and warfare, this Article poses the question as to whether eminent domain should be among them. Unlike other privatized functions, eminent domain is a traditionally governmental and highly coercive power, akin to the government’s power to tax, to arrest individuals, and to license. It is, therefore, a very public power.

In particular, the delegation of this very public power to private, non-profit and charitable corporations has escaped the scrutiny that for-profit private actors have attracted in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in …

Desperate Cities: Eminent Domain And Economic Development In A Post-Kelo World, Asmara Tekle Johnson

ExpressO

Kelo v. City of New London unleashed an unprecedented legislative response when the Court upheld the use of eminent domain for private economic development as consistent with the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment. By exhibiting an extreme deference to the legislative branch and failing to consider the current model of economic development, in which “desperate” cities have seen their economic bases contract and have embarked on fervent urban revitalization campaigns as a result, the Kelo Court failed to take into account the immense influence that large corporate interests wield in the legislature. This influence is generally exercised to the …

Exactions And Burden Distribution In Takings Law, Carlos A. Ball, Laurie Reynolds

William & Mary Law Review

In the last several decades, there has been a marked shift in local government financing away from the use of general revenue taxes and toward nontax revenue-raising devices such as exactions. This Article argues that the Supreme Court, in its exaction cases, missed a golden opportunity to slow this troubling trend toward the greater privatization of local government financing. In addition, it explains how the Court's exaction cases are inconsistent with the goal of burden distribution as reflected in the Court's takings jurisprudence. The Article proposes that the constitutional standard applied to exactions be reformulated to account explicitly for burden …

The Robin Hood Antithesis – Robbing From The Poor To Give To The Rich: How Eminent Domain Is Used To Take Property In Violation Of The Fifth Amendment, Daniel C. Orlaskey

University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class

No abstract provided.

The Green Costs Of Kelo: Economic Development Takings And Environmental Protection, Jonathan H. Adler, Ilya Somin

Faculty Publications

The Supreme Court’s recent decision in Kelo v. City of New London has rekindled the debate over “economic development” takings—condemnations that transfer property from one private owner to another solely on the ground that doing so might improve the local economy or increase tax revenue. While such takings have been condemned by many commentators on both the right and the left, environmentalists have been notably absent among Kelo’s critics. Some environmentalists have even defended the Kelo decision and the use of eminent domain to spur private economic development. At the same time, scholarly commentary on Kelo and other economic …

Quieting The Clang: Hathcock As A Model Of The State-Based Protection Of Property Which Kelo Demands, Joshua E. Baker

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

"The Loss In My Bones": Protecting African American Heirs' Property With The Public Use Doctrine, April B. Chandler

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Brief Amicus Curiae Of Professors David L. Callies, James T. Ely, Paula A. Franzese, Nicole Stelle Garnett, James E. Krier, Daniel R. Mandelker, John Copeland Nagle, John Nolon, J.B. Ruhl, Shelley Ross Saxer, A. Dan Tarlock, Laura Underkuffler, And Edward F. Ziegler In Support Of Petitioners, David L. Callies, Nicole Stelle Garnett, John Copeland Nagle

Court Briefs

No. 04-108
Susette Kelo v. City of New London

On Writ Of Certiorari To The Supreme Court of Connecticut

From the Summary of Argument

The Connecticut Supreme Court's decision was in keeping with Hawaii Housing Authority v. Midkiff, 467 U.S. 229 (1984), which provides that legislative assertions of public use should be subjected to rational basis review. The application of such broadly deferential review in public use cases is inappropriate. Application of rational basis review to the exercise of eminent domain in cases such as this effectively eviscerates the Fifth Amendment's public use limitation. Moreover, lower courts' responses to …

Regulatory Takings And The Original Understanding Of The Takings Clause, Matthew P. Harrington

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Foreword: Property Rights And Economic Development, Eric Kades

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Eminent Domain, Exactions, And Railbanking: Can Recreational Trails Survive The Court’S Fifth Amendment Takings Jurisprudence?, Danaya C. Wright

UF Law Faculty Publications

This article attempts to locate the legal aspects of recreational trail development within the increasingly powerful property rights movement. The most complex result of this rising property rights rhetoric is a clear shift in constitutional takings doctrine to be more sympathetic to landowners' arguments. Thus, the interplay of takings decisions and trails development will be the focus of most of this article.

Part II provides a brief account of the legal structure of governmental land use controls and the current state of takings jurisprudence to form a basic background for the different ways in which recreational trails have been developed. …

From Reconstruction To Deconstruction: Undermining Black Landownership, Political Independence, And Community Through Partition Sales Of Tenancies In Common, Thomas W. Mitchell

Faculty Scholarship

This article considers one of the primary ways in which African Americans have lost millions of acres of land that they were able to acquire in the latter part of the nineteenth century and the beginning part of the twentieth century and the sociopolitical implications of this land loss. Specifically, this article highlights the fact that forced partition sales of tenancy in common property, referred to more commonly as heirs' property, have been a major source of black land loss within the African American community. The article argues that involuntary black land loss has had a significant negative impact upon …

Everyone Benefits, Everyone Pays: Does The Fifth Amendment Mandate Compensation When Property Is Damaged During The Course Of Police Activities?, C. Wayne Owen Jr.

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

The Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution, along with similar provisions in state constitutions, forbids the taking of private property by the government for a public use without just compensation. Despite this protection, many courts have denied takings claims made by innocent third party landowners when police officers caused damage to their property during the course of executing their official duties. These courts held that the damage was not for a "public use" in the narrow sense, and have refused to analyze the claims under takings jurisprudence. This narrow view of "public use" ignores the fact that society as …

The Morality Of Regulation, Loren A. Smith

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

No abstract provided.

Takings And Causation, Jan G. Laitos

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

Constitutional protection of private property is grounded in a conflict between two legal principles--the government's power to regulate private property for the common good and the Constitution's limit on this power in the Takings Clause. The Takings Clause's check on government power conforms to John Rawls's philosophy, which rejects the utilitarian beliefs that government may act to achieve* the "good" of maximizing human happiness and that government can force people to trade certain political liberties for an improved distribution of wealth. Under Rawls's theory, the principle of "justice as fairness" limits a government's ability to require some people to bear …

How Takings Legislation Could Improve Environmental Regulation, E. Donald Elliott

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Politics Of Takings: Choosing The Appropriate Decisionmaker, Lynda L. Butler

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Inserting The Last Remaining Pieces Into The Takings Puzzle, Douglas W. Kmiec

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Muddle Or Muddle Through? Taking Jurisprudence Meets The Endangered Species Act, Mark Sagoff

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Counting Votes And Discounting Holdings In The Supreme Court's Takings Cases, Richard J. Lazarus

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Armstrong Principle, The Narratives Of Takings, And Compensation Statutes, William Michael Treanor

William & Mary Law Review

No abstract provided.

Book Review Of Takings: Private Property And The Power Of Eminent Domain, Russell K. Osgood

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Nollan V. California Coastal Commission, Lewis F. Powell Jr.

Supreme Court Case Files

No abstract provided.