Yours Truly on NPR

The only time I listen to NPR is when I am on the program, and that occurred earlier this week when I was on Talk of the Nation (with Sen. Patty Murray) talking about the Plan B (morning after pill) controversy.

This is not a property law issue, but if you are interested in the debate that took place between me and Sen. Murray, here is a link to an audio of the program.

A Little Rock & Roll Music?

Here is a link to "the 50 greatest conservative rock songs," many of which take a stand for private property rights including this one:

39. “Property Line,” by The Marshall Tucker Band. ; buy CD on Amazon.comThe secret to happiness, according to these southern-rock heavyweights, is life, liberty, and property: “Well my idea of a good time / Is walkin’ my property line / And knowin’ the mud on my boots is mine.”

Special Assignment--Nebraska Landlord Tenant Handout

On Friday, August 14, Prof. Kevin Ruser will be a guest in our class. He will be covering landlord-tenant issues in Nebraska, with a special emphasis on residential landlord-tenant cases.

Your assignment for this class is to read Prof. Ruser's handout on "Nebraska Landlord and Tenant Law," which is available just outside the faculty offices on the South side of the second floor. Please pick up one copy (and only one copy) and read through the handout (with special emphasis on pages 1-30) for class on August 14.

I think this will be a very interesting class.

"The Green Costs of Kelo"

Ilya Somin has an interesting post today over at the Volokh Conspiracy blog. Here is a key excerpt:

Barrels of ink have already been spilled over the Supreme Court's narrow 5-4 decision in Kelo v. City of New London, including some by yours truly. In "The Green Costs of Kelo: Economic Development Takings and Environmental Protection," environmental law professor Jonathan Adler and I have now put together the first article to systematically examine Kelo's implications for environmental policy. It is available here, and currently under review by journals.

We argue that the Supreme Court's decision to allow government to condemn property for transfer to other private parties in order to promote "economic development" may well harm the environment. In particular, private conservation land (an increasingly important tool for protecting environmental amenities and wildlife) is likely to be targeted for condemnation by developers and their allies in local government because conservation property contributes little to development and is usually not subject to property taxes. Allowing economic development condemnations also harms the environment in several indirect ways that we detail in the paper.

Some environmentalists fear that forbidding economic development takings would undermine the use of eminent domain for environmental purposes. Jonathan and I show that these fears are probably groundless. Not even the hint of such a trend has arisen in the nine states where economic development condemnations are banned by state constitutional law. And nearly all environmental takings can easily be justified under one of several legal rationales that would remain intact even if economic development takings are banned.

Like churches, conservation property does not generate lots of tax revenue and economic development for local government growth. Thus, like churches, conservation property may be particularly vulnerable to Kelo-style economic development takings. Interesting post.

Is This Gonna Be On The Exam?

From Overheard in Lawschool:

Our favorite 1L

Property Prof: So are there any questions on the rule against perpetuity?

1L: Yeah, is this gonna be on the final? Cause I have to know if I should care or not...

Prof: Oh Mr. 1L for you, EVERYTHING in the class will be on the final.

Do Definitions of "Family" Relate To Property?

You betcha! See ProprtyProf blog for the scoop.

We will be covering similar issues soon (see assignment 21).

"City to seize church by eminent domain"

"The city of Long Beach, Calif., is using the power of eminent domain bolstered by last summer's U.S. Supreme Court ruling to condemn a Baptist congregation's church building.

The city wants to remove the Filipino Baptist Fellowship's building to make way for condominiums, the Baptist Press reported."

Link.

Zones of Tolerance

My friend, Prof. J Bud from UT, has some interesting things to say about tolerance and the modern culture wars. Consider this excerpt (from J. Budziszewski, The Revenge of Conscience (1999) at 53-54):

The bottom line is that Neutrality is no more coherent in the matter of religious tolerance than it is in tolerance of any other sort. What you can tolerate pivots on your ultimate concern. Because different ultimate concerns ordain different zones of tolerance, social consensus is possible only at the points where these zones overlap. Note well: The greater the resemblance of contending concerns, the greater the overlap of their zones of tolerance. The less the resemblance of contending concerns, the less the overlap of their zones of tolerance. Should contending concerns become sufficiently unlike, their zones of tolerance no longer intersect at all. Consensus vanishes.

This, I believe, is our current trajectory. The embattled term "culture war" is not inflammatory; it is merely inexact. And we can expect the war to grow worse. The reason for this is that our various gods ordain not only different zones of tolerance, but different norms to regulate the dispute among themselves. True tolerance is not well tolerated. For although the God of some of the disputants ordains that they love and persuade their opponents, the idols of some of the others ordain no such thing.

Something to think about while sitting on the beach at Cancun or Deltona over Spring Break.

Does this relate to Property? As we head into the law of restrictive covenants and consider covenants designed to exclude all sorts of land uses and even people from certain neighborhoods, it is well worth our time to think about our own zones of tolerance--those things we think are tolerable and those things we think are intolerable--and then factor in J Bud's insight above.

"The lady doth protest too much, methinks."

Here is a statement Justice O'Connor recently made in protest against statements made in Congress decrying "judicial activism":

"I, said O’Connor, am against judicial reforms driven by nakedly partisan reasoning. Pointing to the experiences of developing countries and former communist countries where interference with an independent judiciary has allowed dictatorship to flourish, O’Connor said we must be ever-vigilant against those who would strongarm the judiciary into adopting their preferred policies. It takes a lot of degeneration before a country falls into dictatorship, she said, but we should avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings."

And here is something I wrote in response:

Well, let's rewrite this eloquent statement of Justice O'Connor just a teensy, little bit:

"I, said Braveheart, am against judicial decrees driven by nakedly partisan reasoning. We must be ever-vigilant against those who would strongarm the People by imposing their preferred policies from the Bench. It takes a lot of degeneration before a country falls into judicial dictatorship, but we should avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings."

The fact that the Justices are beginning to act so defensively encourages me that they are beginning to get it. I am cheered and renewed on the eve of Spring Break.

RLUIPA Developments

Here (from the religion Clause blog).

Judicial Non-Activism

Follow this link to a story and an hilarious picture (artist rendition) of Justice Ginsburg sleeping on the High Court bench.

Warning--this article has absolutely nothing to do with Property. It is just for fun.

I remember my favorite President of all, Ronald Reagan, occasionally fell asleep during cabinet meetings. And I remember at one press conference he responded, with his usual wonderful humor, to a question about whether he had gotten any rest on some trip, by saying something like "I haven't had such a good night's sleep since the last cabinet meeting." Great man.

Online Debate on Kelo

Legal Affairs is sponsoring an online debate between Judy Coleman and Steven D. Anderson on legislative responses to Kelo. Here's the link.

Inclusionary Housing in Omaha

Today's World herald has an interesting article discussing how "students of low-income families flourish in mixed housing." Here is an excerpt:

But a big draw for Timber Creek's 45 public-housing families is the mix of tenant incomes, allowing poor people to blend in and flourish in a suburban area where low-income people historically haven't settled.

"You have more role models here," said Patricia Gunther, a single mother who has lived there for four years. "People get up every morning. They go to work. They pay their rent."

Developments such as Timber Creek can provide some guidance as Omaha grapples with a concentration of poor and minority students in its eastern neighborhoods.

Both the Omaha school district, which has proposed absorbing suburban schools as an equalizer, and suburban school officials, who oppose such a move, say housing patterns have intensified school segregation.

Timber Creek, with its integrated environment, support services for residents and the nearby Holling Heights Elementary School, stands out as an example of how low-income families can thrive in suburbia.

Timber Creek is among only a dozen family-oriented Omaha complexes west of 72nd Street that operate under a government mandate guaranteeing at least some low-income units. The requirements stem from the developers' use of public subsidies, including federal tax credits, to help pay for construction or purchase.

In the Wake of Kelo

The New York Times had an article earlier this week that begins:

In a rare display of unanimity that cuts across partisan and geographic lines, lawmakers in virtually every statehouse across the country are advancing bills and constitutional amendments to limit use of the government's power of eminent domain to seize private property for economic development purposes.

The measures are in direct response to the United States Supreme Court's 5-to-4 decision last June in a landmark property rights case from Connecticut, upholding the authority of the City of New London to condemn homes in an aging neighborhood to make way for a private development of offices, condominiums and a hotel. It was a decision that one justice, who had written for the majority, later all but apologized for.

I love to witness the spirit of liberty unleashed!

Oregon Property Rights Initiative Upheld

From PropertyProf blog, here are some thoughts of Prof. Ben Barros:

The Oregon Supreme Court today reversed a lower court judgment that had invalidated Measure 37, the ballot initiative that requires compensation to be paid to landowners when land-use regulations reduce property values. The opinion is available here. The Oregonian also has a story on the opinion.

I've linked to recent essays on Measure 37 here and here. I've noted before that although I tend to be relatively pro-property rights on takings issues, I think Measure 37 is overbroad and a really bad idea. But the voter anger behind Measure 37 is real, and combined with the post-Kelo backlash should cause land-use planners to question whether consistently sticking it to property owners is a good long-term strategy. Oregon land-use planners probably wouldn't be facing potential disaster if they had made some modest accommodations to property owners' interests from the outset.

I have been waiting for someone to put a property rights amendment on the ballot here. But so far, nothing doing.

Some Career Advice--Another FYI

By now, some of you are thinking "What am I doing in law school? I don't think I want to practice law."

This is not abnormal or something to get depressed about. It is something lots of law students go through.

If you are having these kinds of thoughts, please allow me to suggest a career choice that is worth looking into and one that might not have occurred to you. I refer to the wonderful career of being a law librarian, an academic career as a Professor of Law Library.

Right now the market for law librarians--those with both a J.D. and a M.L.S.--is a big time seller's market. Moreover, the career path to becoming a law library director will be wide and straight for this new generation of law librarians.

It takes one more year of school--to get an MLS at a library school--and then you have a wide open door to the academic market (plus many larger law firms have in house law librarians).

If this is something you might be interested in, I encourage you to talk to one of our outstanding law library faculty-- Professor Rich Leiter, Professor Sandi Placzek, Professor Stefanie Pearlman, or Professor Matt Novak. My son Casey graduated from Minnesota Law and is getting his library degree right now at Missouri-Columbia. And he has found his niche in the law--in the law library to be exact.

By the way, this does not relate to Property Law. It is just another of my FYIs to those who may be interested.

What Is Judicial Activism?

Link. Here it is:

Roger Clegg: A Brief Dialogue on Judicial Activism

Central to the judicial nominations debate is the question of judicial activism. Through a series of questions and answers written for the Committee for Justice, Roger Clegg explains what types of decisions constitute judicial activism and why Americans from across the political spectrum should oppose it. Clegg is president of the Center for Equal Opportunity, a former high-ranking Justice Department official, and one of the nation's leading experts on civil rights law.

A BRIEF DIALOGUE ON JUDICIAL ACTIVISM
By Roger Clegg

Q. What is judicial activism?

A. Judicial activism is when a judge ignores what the text of the Constitution or some other law says and substitutes instead his own preference for what it ought to say. It can involve putting something into the text that isn't there, or taking out something that is there.

Q. Is it activism whenever a court strikes down a statute as unconstitutional?

A. Of course not. If a statute violates the Constitution, it would be judicial activism not to strike it down. Striking down a statute is judicial activism only if the statute really isn't inconsistent with the Constitution.

Q. Is it activism whenever a court overrules one of its own precedents?

A. Again, of course not. The principle of stare decisis - Latin for "Let the decision stand" - is a venerable one, and there are good reasons for courts not lightly to ignore their past rulings. But from time to time they do so, and it really doesn't make sense to call it judicial activism when they do. After all, how can overruling a decision that was itself activist be properly labeled activist?

Q. But don't liberals complain that the current Supreme Court is activist because it has struck down some federal statutes, and mightn't they complain that overruling a decision like Roe v. Wade is activist?

A. They have and they might, but in their heart they know this is a bogus claim.

Q. Okay, so judicial activism is just a court ignoring the text of a law and substituting its own policy preferences. But why is this a left-versus-right argument?

A. It shouldn't be. And, indeed, sometimes judicial activism has led to results that liberals would presumably dislike. Exhibit A is, of course, the infamous Dred Scott decision, where Chief Justice Taney made up a constitutional prohibition against Congress limiting the spread of slavery. At the present time, judicial activism is being used by the left in the culture wars, but it has not always been so, nor will it always be so.

Q. So, probably there are instances where conservatives would like for judges to bend the Constitution's text one way, and liberals would like to bend the text the other way. But why shouldn't this be part of what judges do? Put bluntly: What's wrong with judicial activism?

A. What you're asking is, "What's wrong with judges ignoring the Constitution?" and the answer is the same as the answer to "What's wrong with the President (or Congress) ignoring the Constitution?" Sure, in the short term the Constitution may thwart policies or outcomes that this group or that group might prefer. But in the long run the Constitution protects us all, and it is perilous to urge any of the three branches of government to ignore it.

Q. If it's all that simple, then why doesn't the left - and, especially, the pro-abortion folks who are so enamored of Roe v. Wade - see it?

A. Some of them may actually think a judge can find a right to abortion in the Constitution, but I think they are a minority, even on the left. My sense is that many feminists really see the right to abortion as such an important end that they are willing to protect it by any means necessary. You can't really reason with them. The best you can do is persuade some of the less extreme among them that (a) there's a good chance that even a conservative nominee these days will follow stare decisis with respect to Roe, (b) the overwhelming majority of states will continue to allow most abortions, even if Roe is overruled and, what's more, it will soon be essentially impossible to keep abortion pills out of the hands of women in, say, Utah and Louisiana, and (c) the left is playing with fire by giving five justices the power to rewrite the Constitution.

FYI--An Interesting Article

David L. Abney, Religion and Housing for the Homeless: Using the First Amendment and the Religious Land Use Act to Convert Religious Faith Into Safe, Affordable Housing, 8 Scholar 1-15 (2005).

This article is not available on line, or in the law library, but it is available on Westlaw.

This is not an assignment. Just a "heads up" for those with an interest.

Assignments

Here is the list of assignments updated to include the Sprawl article:


Assignments - Spring 2006

I. Takings

1. U.S. v. Causby (casebook p. 669-677)
2. Mahon (casebook p. 745-749)
Penn Central (casebook p. 754-769)
3. First English (casebook p. 749-754)
Keystone (Handout 8)
4. Euclid and Nectow (casebook p. 693-706)
5. Loretto and Lucas (casebook p. 769-784)
6. Nollan and Dolan (casebook p. 784-803)
7. Palazzolo (casebook p. 803-814); casebook p. 814-815
8. "Poletown Lives!!" video; Midkiff case and Poletown note (casebook p. 714-720)
9. Kelo case (dowload opinion from link on blog).

I A. Law of Sprawl

9A. Sprawl Article

II. The Recording System

10. Casebook p. 1069-1086; Handout 9
11. Casebook p. 1086-1098
12. Casebook p. 1098-1107
13. Casebook p. 1107-1119
14. Casebook p. 1119-1127

III. Adverse Possession

15. Casebook p. 1213-1226
16. Casebook p. 1226-1235; 1243-1252

IV. Real Covenants and Equitable Servitudes

17. Casebook p. 553-563
18. Casebook p. 563-571
19. Casebook p. 571-577
20. Casebook p. 577-587
21. Casebook p. 69-76; 587-595; Moore v. City of East Cleveland (Handout 9A)
22. Casebook p. 595-608


IV. Real Covenants and Equitable Servitudes

17. Casebook p. 553-563
18. Casebook p. 563-571
19. Casebook p. 571-577
20. Casebook p. 577-587
21. Casebook p. 69-76; 587-595; Moore v. City of East Cleveland (Handout 9A)
22. Casebook p. 595-608

V. Nuisance

23. Casebook p. 608-626

VI. Landlord Tenant

24. Casebook p. 385-394
25. Casebook p. 395-404
26. Casebook p. 404-423
27. Casebook p. 423-435; Handout 10
28. Casebook p. 451-457
29. Casebook p. 458-478
30. Casebook p. 478-490

Kelo Soapbox

Ladies and gentlemen, here is your chance to express yourselves about Kelo and "eminent domain abuse." Is it an abuse of power to take land in order to improve the community by economic development?

Which of the opinions in Kelo did you find most persuasive? Why? Is this an activist decision?

I hope many of you will get up on this soapbox and write a comment.

Speak up. Fill cyberspace with your intelligence!

New Assignment

For next Thursday (Feb 2--Groundhog's Day), I want to focus on a brief overview of what some call "The Law of Sprawl," a body of law that is a very hot topic among "progressive" Property scholars who don't like the way people have migrated from urban areas to suburban communities.

Our assignment is to read Michael Lewin's article, "Teaching Law Students About Sprawl." Here is a link to the article (scroll down and download the full text of the article in PDF format from the Social Science Research Network).

The Spirit of Liberty on the March

From the Volokh Conspiracy blog:

BB&T, the nation’s ninth largest financial holdings company with $109.2 billion in assets, announced today that it “will not lend to commercial developers that plan to build condominiums, shopping malls and other private projects on land taken from private citizens by government entities using eminent domain.”

In a press release issued today by the bank, BB&T Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John Allison, said, “The idea that a citizen’s property can be taken by the government solely for private use is extremely misguided, in fact it’s just plain wrong. One of the most basic rights of every citizen is to keep what they own. As an institution dedicated to helping our clients achieve economic success and financial security, we won’t help any entity or company that would undermine that mission and threaten the hard-earned American dream of property ownership.”

A private lender taking a principled stand in favor of liberty. Wow! Global warming, schmobel warming. Hell just froze over!

Kelo

Update

I changed the date on this and moved it to the top so you can find it easier.

As you read the opinions in Kelo for Friday's class, ask yourself which opinion you find most persuasive, Justice Stevens' majority opinion, Justice O'Connor's dissent, or Justice Thomas' dissent.

Also think about this. We hear a lot these days about "judicial activism." Do you think Justice Stevens and the majority are acting as activists in Kelo? Is it activism when a court defers to the legislature? Is it activism to refuse to follow an express constitutional text designed to protect individual liberty? What is activism? Is it merely the way you describe the Court when it does something with which you disagree?

The opinion of the Supreme Court in Kelo is here.

Here is a recent NYT article that notes that:

They have still not moved out. Not Susette Kelo. Not the Derys. Not Byron Athenian or Bill Von Winkle or the others.

Five months after the United States Supreme Court set off a national debate by ruling that the City of New London could seize their property through eminent domain to make way for new private development, no one has been forced to leave.

No bulldozers have arrived to level the last houses still standing, and none are expected soon.

Even though the holdouts lost their case, and the development that would displace them finally seems free to go forward, construction has not begun, and some elements of the project have been effectively paralyzed since the court ruling prompted a political outcry.

The transcript of the oral argument in the case is here.

Here is a link to a recent NPR program on the post-Kelo flurry of legislation protecting property rights. Some say that this results in too much protection of private property rights (but can you really have too much of a good thing?).

Here is an article on Kelo by law prof Richard Epstein.

And here is an interview from Reasononline with Kelo's attorney Scott Bullock on what lies ahead for property rights in the wake of Kelo.

I am only assigning the opinion in the Kelo case. The other links are supplied for those who are interested in more depth.

Great Article About Baseball, Life Estates, and the Iran Hostages

You know how much I love baseball. This is a great article from the Washington Post about how a gift of a lifetime pass from Major League Baseball "helped Iran hostages reconnect with America." It is worth reading over the weekend.

What is the Source of our Rights and Liberties?

In the Palazzolo case, Justice Kennedy refers to an argument made by the State of Rhode Island that takes the position that "Property rights are created by the State" (p. 809) and, thus, what the State giveth the State can taketh away.

Do you agree with this view of the source of our liberties? Are our rights to freedom of speech, religious liberty, and equality also the mere creatures of the State?

Consider what the Declaration of Independence says about this issue:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

What are your thoughts?

Beach Day--Tomorrow

Hey, dudes. Forget about Christmas in July; tomorrow is day at the beach in January!

For tomorrow's discussion of Nollan v. California Coastal Commission you are all encouraged to come dressed for a day at the shore. Feel free to wear an Hawaii Print Shirt or bring a boogie board.

Also, think about the relationship between ends and means of a regulatory scheme. What does it mean when the Court says that there must be an "essential nexus" between the ends or goals of a restriction on beachfront development and a condition imposed on the grant of permission to rebuild?

Suppose I go to my doctor for, say, strep throat, and he treats me by putting a band aid on my big toe. Do the means (the treatment) bear a reasonable relationship to the ends (curing my strep throat)? In other words, is there an "essential nexus" between the treatment and the goal of curing my strep throat? What would happen to a doctor who practiced this kind of medicine? [Would he end up serving on the California Coastal Commission?] Think about my big toe when you prepare for our discussion of Nollan.

Welcome Back!

Welcome Back for 1L Spring Semester: The Sequel. To get you off to a cheerful start, here is a link to some great lawyer jokes. And here is one you may especially enjoy:

A paralegal, an associate, and a partner of a prestigious New York law firm are walking through Central Park on their way to lunch when they find an antique oil lamp. They rub it and a genie comes out in a puff of smoke.

The genie says, "I usually only grant three wishes, so I'll give each of you just one."

"Me first! Me first!" says the paralegal. "I want to be in the Bahamas, driving a speedboat, without a care in the world."

Poof. He's gone.

"Me next! Me next!" says the associate in astonishment. "I want to be in Hawaii, relaxing on the beach with my personal masseuse, an endless supply of piña coladas, and the love of my life."

Poof. She's gone.

"You're next," the genie says to the partner.

The partner says, "I want those two back in the library after lunch."

Nyuknyuknyuk!

Syllabus and Handouts

Available in the racks on South Side of second floor.

Additional Assignments

UPDATE --First Assignment For Spring Semester

For our first class next week, lets pick up where we left off. I believe we had covered through the Keystone case, so lets be prepared to discuss First English and Euclid and Nectow.

For those of you who want to read ahead a bit (something I don't recommend by the way), the next major assignment after we complete the Takings assignments, will be the Recording System (pages 1069-1127).

14. U.S. v. Causby (casebook p. 669-677)
15. Mahon case (casebook p. 745-749); Penn Central (casebook p. 754-769)
16. First English (casebook p. 749-754); Keystone (Handout 8)
17. Euclid and Nectow (casebook p. 693-706)
18. Loretto and Lucas (casebook p. 769-784)
19. Nollan and Dolan (casebook p. 784-803)
20. Palazzolo (casebook p. 803-814); Casebook p. 814-815
21. "Poletown Lives!!" documentary; Midkiff case and Poletown case (casebook p. 714-720)
22. Kelo (download opinion from link provided above)

Exam Info

Here is some information I mentioned at the review session yesterday.

The exam is closed book--you may not bring any written or printed materials to the exam.

Also, be sure to read the exam instructions carefully. Thery include a list of legal doctrines and rules that you should assume are in force (i.e.,default rules) unless a question otherwise indicates.

Good luck!

James Madison's Essay on Property

Here is a link to Madison's short, but very interesting, essay on Property and property rights.

Thanksgiving Assignment

Remember, we don't meet again until Wed. Nov. 30, when we will have a question /review session.

Here is your special assignment for Thanksgiving Day:

1. Sleep in
2. Spend time with family and friends
3. Eat lots of Turkey (or, roast lettuce if that is what you crave)
4. Watch lots of football (or if you prefer baseball, I heartily recommend the DVD of the 2004 ALCS featuring the greatest comeback in the history of baseball)
5. If you must work, watch the Hugh Grant-Emma Thompson version of Sense and Sensibility and brush up on the fee tail.

The New "Chief"

Since we are now reading opinions of SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the United States), I thought you might enjoy this article, by Linda Greenhouse in the NYT, about the impact of the new Chief Justice, John Roberts, on the culture of the Court.

Class Schedule

Update: Please notice additional class (Mon. Oct. 31) on which we will not meet (see below):

As we discussed earlier, because our class meets for 60 minute hours, we have 7 class periods to cancel. Here are 5 dates on which we will not meet:

1. Tuesday October 4

2. Wednesday October 12

3. Monday October 31

4. Monday and Tuesday November 21 & 22 (Thanksgiving Week)

Astros in Six

Sorry, Prof. Lenich, but I think the Astros will win the WS in no more than 6 games. They have an edge in starting pitching (Clemens, Pettitte, Oswalt) and a substantial edge in the bullpen.

It will be Astros in 5 or 6 games!

1917 is still a magic number.

Great Legal Blog

The one "must read" blog every day for a lawyer wanting to stay informed is Howard Bashman's How Appealing. Check it out and, if you like it, bookmark it.

Katrina and "Price Gouging"

Over at the Volokh Conspiracy, Todd Zywicki has an interesting post:

Walter Williams on "Price Gouging":

The people's economist, Walter Williams, patiently explains once again why limits on "price gouging" are counterproductive (I noted Georgia's "crackdown" on price gouging a week or two ago):

The fallout from Hurricane Katrina has featured a lot of ignorance and demagoguery about prices. Let's look at some of it. One undeniable fact is that the hurricane disaster changed scarcity conditions. There are fewer stores, fewer units of housing, less gasoline and a shortage of many other goods and services used daily. Rising prices not only manifest these changed scarcity conditions, they help us cope, adjust and get us on the road to recovery.
Here's a which-is-better question for you. Suppose a hotel room rented for $79 a night prior to Hurricane Katrina's devastation. Based on that price, an evacuating family of four might rent two adjoining rooms. When they arrive at the hotel, they find the rooms rent for $200; they decide to make do with one room. In my book, that's wonderful. The family voluntarily opted to make a room available for another family who had to evacuate or whose home was destroyed. Demagogues will call this price-gouging, but I ask you, which is preferable: a room available at $200 or a room unavailable at $79? Rising prices get people to voluntarily economize on goods and services rendered scarcer by the disaster.

He also explains why the cost that the service stations paid when the bought the gasoline is simply irrelevant:

What about the house you might have bought for $50,000 in 1970 that you're selling today? If you charged me $250,000 for it, today's price for its replacement, as opposed to what you paid for it, are you guilty of price-gouging?

What are your thoughts?

Property Rights

I believe that the institution of private property--and the vigorous protection of economic liberties and property rights--are what make men and women truly free. No liberty is safe in a society in which government controls property, because in such a society your ability to pursue happiness, support a family, work, have a home, and even worship God often depends upon the grace of those who from time to time hold the reins of political power. How much political freedom do you have in a society in which "getting ahead" economically depends upon your towing the party line of those who wield political power?

On the other hand, Professor Ely once said that "an absolute right of property...would result in the dissolution of society." What do you think Prof. Ely means? What kinds of social restraints on private property rights are acceptable in a free society? Which do you think is more important in a free society--economic autonomy or sexual autonomy? Why?

In this course, we will focus on the acquisition of property rights and on the "sticks" in the bundle of private property rights--possession, use, development, control, and transfer. We will also focus on the "public law" of private property: the constitutional protection of private property under the Takings Clause of the U.S. Constitution, as well as a number of federal civil rights laws protecting certain property rights from being abridged. I hope you enjoy the class!

By the way, what is property?