The California Court of Appeal in Southern California recently prevented the California Coastal Commission from once again imposing draconian permit conditions in violation of the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution, which provides that private property shall not be taken for public use without just compensation. The case is Bay Island Club v. California… Read more »
In a closely watched land use case entitled Berkeley Hillside Preservation v. City of Berkeley, the California Supreme Court will soon decide whether a property owner who wishes to build a single family residence may be subject to the expensive and time consuming process of an Environmental Impact Report (EIR), even though homes have historically… Read more »
In a rather unique twist, a governmental entity–the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission–brought suit against the United States in the Court of Federal Claims, on the ground that six years of periodic flooding during the sensitive growing season by the Army Corps of Engineers destroyed 18 million board feet of timber and left habitat unable… Read more »
In a significant unanimous decision, the United States Supreme Court has ruled that property owners have a right under the Administrative Procedures Act to challenge an Environmental Protection Agency compliance order in court. In Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency the EPA issued a compliance order to the Sacketts, claiming that they had attempted to develop… Read more »
A government official shows up at your door step with concerns of building code violations. Are you required to let the official onto your private property for an inspection? The property rights lawyers at Kassouni Law weigh-in: Many counties and cities in California are taking an increasingly aggressive approach to inspections of property for alleged… Read more »
Kassouni Law represents Lockaway Storage, a Bay Area storage facility company which has been at odds with the County of Alameda for almost ten years over its conditional use permit (Lockaway Storage v. County of Alameda). In 2000 Lockaway bought a parcel of land which had a preexisting conditional use permit for the construction and… Read more »
The California Court of Appeals issued a significant property rights ruling last December in Avenida San Juan Partnership v. City of San Clemente. In that case, the plaintiff owned an undeveloped 2.85 parcel of land in the city of San Clemente, which was located squarely within a residential zoning area. This area allowed the owner… Read more »
Authorities at all levels are continually ratcheting up their efforts to meticulously enforce land use restrictions. In the process, they are increasingly testing the boundaries of their constitutional powers and encroaching further upon the constitutional rights of citizens. Accordingly, courts across the country are grappling with the question of when a governmental search of private… Read more »
On January 23, 2012 the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Jones, a controversial Fourth Amendment case which raised fundamental questions about the scope of the government’s power to track a citizen’s movements. At issue was evidence that the Prosecution had relied upon in convicting Antoine Jones. To obtain this evidence,… Read more »
