Robert Thomas

Firm/Organization: Damon Key Leong Kupchak Hastert
Blogs: Inverse Condemnation

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Chief Justice Marshall (L) and Professor Wythe (R) request the pleasure of your company at the 16th Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference at the William & Mary Law School, in Williamsburg, Virginia, Thursday and Friday, October 3-4, 2019. Register here, and make your plans to join us.  The Conference’s main event is the awarding of the Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Prize to Professor Emeritus Steven J. Eagle, recognizing his lifetime of work and scholarship about property…
On the day we celebrate Constitution Day (or should we say Khaaaaan-stitution Day?) we have to admit that pretty much nothing beats One Named Kirk’s reading of the Preamble.  He might be from Iowa, but that guy who plays him is from north of the border, so our kudos to a Canadian for the best dramatic rendition of our founding document. “This was not written for chiefs!”  Beam me down, Scotty! …
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Here’s the amici brief we are filing today in support of the Petitioner in a case we’ve been following, Smyth v. Conservation Comm’n of Falmouth, No. 19-223 (cert. petition filed Aug. 20, 2019).  The Massachusetts Court of Appeals held that a judge, not a jury, determines Penn Central takings questions, and that the owner lost anyhow because, you know, Penn Central.  Here are the Questions Presented: Whether the loss of all developmental use…
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Takings mavens know lawprof Ilya Somin. Among other things, he’s authored some of the more interesting and useful scholarship in our field. Here’s his latest, published in the 2019 Cato Supreme Court Review, about the Supreme Court’s latest takings case, Knick v. Township of Scott.  We naturally recommend you read the entirety of his article, Knick v. Township of Scott: Ending a Catch-22 that Barred Takings Cases from Federal Court, which he…
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  Today’s post is kind of long, but we think the case is well worth your time. NGA Preliminary Injunctions Regular readers know that we’ve made no secret of our disapproval of the prevailing practice in federal courts of using preliminary injunctions to allow private for-profit pipelines to grab immediate pre-condemnation possession of property using the Natural Gas Act’s delegated federal power of eminent domain, even though everyone agrees the NGA delegates only the straight…
Barista’s note: today’s post is mostly by Benming Zhang, one of my William and Mary law students. He likes property, land use, takings, state and local government law, and related subjects. And he walks the walk: his day job is serving as an elected member of the Williamsburg, Virginia, city council. (It is his night job, actually, since he’s a full-time student, and the council meets mostly in the evenings)  This post…
A great result for colleague Carolyn Elefant, who represents property owners in a case and issue we’ve been following.  This is one of those Natural Gas Act pipeline cases. Not on the issue of immediate-possession-by-injunction (we’ll have the latest development in that chapter very soon), but on the administrative law side, involving FERC’s approval of a certificate of public convenience. That, as you know, is the trigger to a private pipeline exercising the…
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You overwhelmingly asked for Nashville, and we’re bringing it to you! Get ready, and hold your place now: here’s the list of programs and speakers for the 36th Annual ALI-CLE Eminent Domain and Land Valuation Litigation Conference, to be held at the Downtown Nashville Hilton, January 23,- 25, 2020. Two-and-a-half days with top-notch national faculty (lawyers from both sides, judges, legal scholars, appraisers, relocation experts, and others).   Early registration and group rates are available …
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We’re posting the Indiana Court of Appeals’ recent opinion in Hoagland Family Ltd. P’ship v. Town of Clear Lake, No. 18A-PL-2088 (Aug. 28, 2019) not because it says much about eminent domain law, but more because (1) we commented on the case last time it was before the court, and (2) it’s kind of funny.  From what we can read between the lines, the case probably involved one of those dudes who makes…
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Coke – he’s the real thing. One of the great things about teaching at the William and Mary Law School (and there are many) is that it houses the original law book collection of George Wythe, “the first American law professor.” He is the O.G. Lawprof, both at W&M, and in the United States (they even half-named the school for him). And he had some good books. More on that in a second.  So…