Tag: eminent domain/condemnation

Posted on Mar 9, 2010 in News & Events

Last week, Fox News featured a Virginia property owner, Edd Jennings, whose family farm might be “the most condemned property in America.” Fox & Friends Host Steve Doocy spoke with the Virginia cattle rancher and his attorney, Joe Waldo (Virginia OCA Member), concerning Jennings’ inverse condemnation suit against the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT). In the current litigation, Jennings alleges inverse condemnation against VDOT, because the department did not exercise eminent domain before interfering with his property rights.

Posted on Mar 2, 2010 in News & Events

With a bit of irony, the sale of 38 acres of Jacksonville Port Authority (“Jaxport”) waterfront property to Keystone Coal Company and related entities (“Keystone”) closed on March 1, 2010 closing the final chapter of an eminent domain battle that began in 2005. Keystone purchased Jaxport’s property adjacent to Keystone’s 70 acre parcel for $13,204,844.00 under a global settlement agreement. Keystone’s 70 acres was the subject of Jaxport’s attempted seizure by a “slow-take” eminent domain action filed in 2005. (See our previous post here.)

Posted on Jan 29, 2010 in News & Events

The Owners’ Counsel of America (OCA) will honor two journalists in 2010 with the Crystal Eagle Award for their remarkable journalism and unwavering effort to be critical and objective, specifically with respect to their investigative reportage and balanced analysis regarding the government’s use of eminent domain.

Posted on Jan 21, 2010 in News & Events

Americans became more familiar with the government’s power and use of eminent domain following the 2005 Supreme Court decision in Kelo v. City of New London, however, for New Yorkers eminent domain has become personal. The use of eminent domain in New York State, and particularly in metro New York, has been heavily discussed, analyzed and criticized in recent news, specifically with the debate surrounding the planned Atlantic Yards Project in Brooklyn and the December 3, 2009 appellate court decision barring the use of eminent domain for a proposed Columbia University expansion project in the West Harlem.

Posted on Jan 11, 2010 in News & Events

In a post Friday at Atlantic Yards Report, Norman Oder quotes Senator Bill Perkins at the NY Senate hearing on eminent domain reform, “This [eminent domain reform] is not like instant rice… it’s going to be an uphill battle, we’re going to win, without a doubt, but I don’t want us to think this is going to happen overnight… This is a struggle that is going to require our continued participation and continued vigilance.” Speaking on momentum for reform in the legislature, Sen. Perkins said that members of both the Assembly and Senate have reached out to him indicating that they are interested in looking more closely at the need for eminent domain reform.

Posted on Jan 6, 2010 in News & Events

The Senate Standing Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions, chaired by Senator Bill Perkins, conducted a public hearing yesterday (Tuesday, January 5, 2010) on eminent domain abuse in New York. The hearing entitled “Unconstitutional: What the Appellate Division’s Eminent Domain Ruling Means for the Columbia Expansion,” focused upon the recent Appellate Division ruling against the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) in the proposed condemnation for expansion of Columbia University, Kaur v. New York State Urban Development Corporation, decided December 3, 2009. (See the following blog commentaries on this decision – Atlantic Yards Report, Inverse Condemnation and Charles Bagli on the New York Times blog here.)

Posted on Dec 3, 2009 in News & Events

As we noted here previously, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments yesterday in the most recent property rights case to go before the bench Stop the Beach Renourishment, Inc. v. Florida Dep’t of Environmental Protection.

Posted on Dec 2, 2009 in News & Events

The Supreme Court has released the unofficial transcript for today’s argument in Stop the Beach Renourishment, Inc. v. Florida Dept. of Environmental Protection. A pdf of the transcript is available here. More to follow once we have had time to read it.

Posted on Oct 22, 2009 in News & Events

The opinion piece below appeared in today’s Arizona Daily Star and is attributed to Senator John McCain. Senator McCain clearly disagrees with the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in Kelo and even calls upon the Court to revisit “its decision in the near term because it is irresponsible for the court to abandon long-held limitations on government power.” Although it is unlikely that the Court will revisit Kelo “in the near term,” the Justices will have an opportunity review a case before the Court concerning the issue of private property rights when oral arguments in Stop the Beach Renourishment v. Florida Dep’t of Environmental Protection take place before the Court on December 2, 2009.

Posted on Sep 18, 2009 in News & Events

(Williamsburg, VA) – William & Mary Law School will host the Sixth Annual Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference Oct. 16-17 in Williamsburg, Va. The conference is presented by the William & Mary Property Rights Project and the Institute of Bill of Rights Law.