The Institute for Justice

Dana Berliner serves as the Senior Vice President and Litigation Expert at the Institute for Justice, where she has worked as a lawyer since 1994. She litigates property rights, economic liberty and other constitutional cases in both federal and state courts.

Dana has written amicus briefs on constitutional eminent domain issues in more than ten states. She works with owners around the country in opposing the condemnation of their homes and businesses for private use and with legislatures seeking to reform abusive eminent domain laws. Her ideas have been quoted in The New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, NPR and The Washington Post as well as on various radio and television broadcasts, including 60 Minutes.

Significant Eminent Domain and Property Rights Representations and Reported Decisions

• Dana represented the home and business owners in Norwood, Ohio, who, on July 26, 2006, secured a unanimous ruling from the Ohio Supreme Court that the city could not take their property for a privately-owned shopping mall and “lifestyle center.”
• Along with co-counsel Scott Bullock, Dana represented the homeowners in Kelo v. New London, in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that cities could condemn property because other uses may produce an increase in tax dollars and jobs.
• Dana also secured a ruling that the Village of Port Chester, N.Y., violated due process in its use of eminent domain to secure waterfront property.

Speaking Engagements

• American Law Institute: Eminent Domain and Land Valuation Litigation, “Challenging the Take,” February 6, 2015, San Francisco, CA.
• Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference, “The Role of Advocate in Defining Property,” October 31, 2014, Williamsburg, VA.
• Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference, “Property Rights in Times of Transition,” October 18, 2013, Williamsburg, VA.
• American Law Institute: Eminent Domain and Land Valuation Litigation, “Legislative Reforms and State-by-State Trends from across the Nation,” January 24, 2013.
• Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference, October 2011, Beijing, China.
• American Law Institute-American Bar Association: Eminent Domain and Land Valuation Litigation, “Winning Arguments in Challenging the Right To Take and Public Use,” February 17, 2010

Published Articles and Papers

• Opening the Floodgates: Eminent Domain Abuse in the Post-Kelo World, a report on the use and threatened use of eminent domain for private development in the year since the Kelo decision, 2006.
• Public Power, Private Gain: A Five-Year, State-by-State Report Examining the Abuse of Eminent Domain, the first-ever nationwide study on the abuse of eminent domain, released in 2003.