OCA Blog

On Friday, July 26th from 2:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. ET the Land Use Committee of the ABA’s Section of State and Local Government Law is sponsoring a free (for Section members) informal webinar about the latest in takings law:Knick Picking Regulatory Takings: Did the Court Right a Wrong, or Wrong a Right? OCA presenters Dwight Merriam (featured to the left) and Robert Thomas (featured below) will discuss reaction...

Sharing is caring!

On June 21, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 majority opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts “restor takings claims to the full-fledged constitutional status the Framers envisioned when they included the Clause among the other protections in the Bill of Rights.”Knick v. Township of Scott, 139 S. Ct. 2162 (2019). The Fifth Amendment’s “nor shall private property be taken without just compensation” is the clause Chief...

Sharing is caring!

By OCA Members Gideon Kanner and Michael Berger IF THE DUKE OF YORK’S MEN THOUGHT they were being made to perform useless, repetitive tasks to no worthwhile end, they were in about the same condition as the American lawyers who were practicing tak- ings law in the 1970s and 1980s. During that period of time, hordes of lawyers representing the competing sides in regulatory taking cases were sent, figuratively,...

Sharing is caring!

OCA Member Robert Thomas seeks to alert all property owners in his recent posting on the impact of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent landmark decision in Knick v. Township of Scott: Heads up, property owners: last week the U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling changing the way property rights lawsuits have been handled for the last thirty years. In Knick v. Township of Scott, the Court allowed property...

Sharing is caring!

Read OCA Member Robert Thomas’ take on the recent Knick decision in his blog entitled Inverse Condemnation here.

Sharing is caring!

Congratulations to the Pacific Legal Foundation for winning a big property rights case today! In 2013, Rose Knick was forced to allow public access to a suspected gravesite on her ranch. Ms. Knick  sued over the unconstitutional property taking, but a federal court refused to hear her federal claim citing the 1985 Supreme Court decision Williamson County. Ms. Knick went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court  seeking...

Sharing is caring!

The decision in an important takings case, Knick v. Township of Scott, Pennsylvania, reargued Jan. 16, is soon to be released. Be watching for it,… By Dwight Merriam | June 11, 2019. Read more.

Sharing is caring!

Thor Hearne, a parter at Larson O’Brien and perhaps the best known lawyer specializing in Rails to Trails litigation recently filed another lawsuit in the Federal Court of Claims on behalf of 150 landowners whose property is part of an eight-mile rail corridor that will be used to expand Sarasota’s “Legacy Trail.” Despite the fact that in the last 10 years the federal government has had to pay millions to...

Sharing is caring!

Over the last 40 years, more than 8 million babies have been born through the miracle of in vitro fertilization, creating new love and new families.But when couples split, what happens to the embryos? Is this a property rights issue or someting else? It’s not an easy question to answer. Connecticut would benefit from a law that providesguidance. In the meantime, the Connecticut Supreme Court has that question before...

Sharing is caring!

Whether he knows it or not, by declaring a national emergency to build his wall President Donald Trump has doomed the centerpiece of his presidency to an eternity of fights in Congress and the courts. Trump does not see or chooses not to see the naked truth that as a practical matter, the nature of eminent domain litigation and federal law will prevent him from ever assembling the land...

Sharing is caring!