The First Circuit dismissed a land trust's claim that a statute revoking its title to lands in a canal area amounted to a taking and violated its due process rights. The statute amended Law 489, which among other things, created the land trust and transferred to the trust title to certain lands that...

The Fifth Circuit, in a class action suit, reversed in part, vacated in part, and remanded for further proceedings a lower court decision dismissing landowners' Fifth Amendment takings claims arising from the conversion of a railroad right-of-way to a recreational trail traversing their land. The la...

The Federal Circuit upheld the dismissal of landowners' inverse condemnation suit against the federal government alleging that their property was contaminated by trichloroethylene (TCE) as the result of government actions at a U.S. Air Force base. The landowners failed to point to some evidence pres...

The Third Circuit reversed a district court judgment awarding compensation to property owners pursuant to the government’s taking of 6.45 acres of land in the Gettysburg National Military Park. The court impermissibly failed to apply the "unit rule" of valuation and, therefore, improperly deter...

The Court held that the "substantially advances" formula, announced in Agins v. City of Tiburon, 447 U.S. 255, 10 ELR 20361 (1980), is not an appropriate test for determining whether a government regulation effects a Fifth Amendment taking. The "substantially advances" formula prescribes an inquiry ...

The U.S. Supreme Court held that a city's proposed disposition of property owners' property, in a plan designed to revitalize the city's ailing economy, qualifies as a "public use" within the meaning of the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. There is no allegation that a...

The court holds that the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture's actions in response to an outbreak of avian influenza did not deprive a poultry farmer of his property in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. The case arose after three flocks of the farmer's chickens were suspected of having avian...

The court holds that a solid waste management district regulation requiring solid waste to be disposed at either in-district or out-of-state landfills, unless otherwise authorized, does not violate the U.S. or Arkansas Constitutions. The regulation does not violate the Commerce Clause because it is ...

The court holds that a state statute concerning the shooting of small game from a public right-of-way does not constitute a compensable taking under the U.S. or South Dakota Constitutions. Lacking more than intermittent and temporary invasions, or the placement of a fixed structure upon the land by ...

The court affirms a lower court's grant of summary judgment in favor of a trade association declaring that a county's proposed ordinance involving waste disposal is unconstitutional and enjoining the county from its enforcement. By forcing the trade association's members to use the county's disposal...