5 Concerns about Texas Central Railway From the Cattle Raisers

The Texas Central Railway survived the – no eminent doamin for you- chopping block. An attempt had been made in House Bill 1 to remove the railway’s ability to qualify for eminent domain. Ft. Worth Star Telegram

The President of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association explains 5 reasons they oppose the Railway:

  • Primarily funded by Japenese sources with uncertain long-term fi…

Eminent Domain: Where the Libertarians, Conservatives & Left Align

On the 10th anniversary of the 2005 U.S. Supreme Court decision Kelo, there’s a new focus on how the transfer of land harms the poor. 

The Washington Post, Volokh Conspiracy, features a heavily edited quote from the NAACP, post-Kelo: 

“As Hilary Shelton of the NAACP put it in testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, “allowing municipalities to pursue eminent domain for private economic development [has] … a disparate impact on African Americans and other minorities……

Landowner Files Suit Against Pipeline: No Public Benefit for Interstate Pipeline

An Arkansas Landowner alleges that there is no public benefit to Arkansas for a pipleine from Oklahoma to Tennessee.  Further, the only benefit is to the private company building the pipeline.

Growing case law supports this position throughout the country to deny common carrier status to interstate transportation of oil, gas, and electricity. 

Arkansas Busin…

Rapidly Growing Legal Trend Wins Over Kentucky Court : Common Carriers NO Eminent Domain Power

If there is no public use in Kentucky, then a common carrier isn’t afforded eminent domain to build a pipeline in Kentucky according to a Court of Appeals Panel last week.

This growing trend in eminent domain litigation- is the public use occuring within the govenrmental entity that is granting the power of eminent domain.

Over the last year, court rulings have impacted pipelines and transmission lines.

adminPosted ineasement, legal trend, pipelines/common carriers, private company, private property rights, public use or benefit, transmission lines

History of Eminent Domain from the US Department of Justice

As a reminder that it’s really just your bad local governments that use eminent domain, the Department of Justice has put up a series of delightful photos detailing the history of eminent domain use by the federal government.

The History lesson:

  • “whenever the United States acquires a property through eminent domain, it has a constitutional responsibility to justly compensate the property owner for the fair market value of the property.  See Bauman v. Ross, 167…

TPPF to Start Litigation Center to Litigate What Comes from Left Field.

Robert Henneke, newly hired as the head of TPPF’s Center for the American Future,  will belitigating government overreach and 10th amendment issues, including:

  • environmental
  •  private property
  • and business autonomy rights.

It’s like a Texas version of Institute for Justice, the group of attorneys that represented Kelo in Kelo v. New London, the preeminent eminent domain case of the last 20 years.