Here’s a cert petition that asks whether a local government (here, the granola-swanky Marin County, California) as a condition of approving a building permit may require a property owner to restrict uses of the land to commercial agriculture, and bind
If you are a plaintiff, you may rightly predict that if an opinion begins with the words, “[r]oughly two decades ago…” there’s a good chance you aren’t going to like the outcome. Courts tend to not like cases that are
Worth checking out. Although academics (and, presumably, those who pay for the privilege) have been able to access a limited catalog of historic records and briefs from the U.S. Supreme Court, thanks to the Wolf Library at William & Mary
Here’s the latest in a case we’ve been following for quite a while. In Ohio ex rel. AWMS Water Solutions, LLC v. Mertz, No. 2026-Ohio-1487 (Apr. 29, 2026), the Ohio Supreme Court held that the operator of injection wells lacked
Here’s the story: Los Angeles issued a homeowner demolition and grading permits, okaying the tear down of a dilapidated house. The owners already owned the adjacent parcel, and purchased the dilapidated house with plans to tear it down and make
Yesterday, in First Choice Women’s Resource Centers, Inc. v. Davenport, No. 24-781 (Apr. 29, 2026), the U.S. Supreme Court held that an organization which provides counseling and resources to pregnant women had standing to bring a First Amendment challenge to
Hawaii has a unique status among American states. It is the only state that once was a separate sovereign nation, the Kingdom of Hawaii and then its short-lived successor, the Republic of Hawaii. Yes, we know that Texas may lay
You land user types know that the concept of “vested rights” or “zoning estoppel” and related doctrines line nonconforming uses are very state-specific. From early vesting jurisdictions where merely filing an application for a permitted use locks in the then-existing
In an historic win for property owners in California, in Shear Dev. Co., LLC v. California Coastal Comm’n, No. S2284378 (Apr. 23, 2026), the unanimous California Supreme Court held that the Coastal Commission–which we can say without exaggeration is the
There’s a lot to like the panel opinion from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in Sanchez v. Torres, No. 25-2009 (Apr. 21, 2026), even though the court ultimately rejected the claim the State of New Mexico