InfoHive – Eminent Domain

In KP- 0296 Texas Attorney General offers this rational for including firearms sales as an essential business:

• Cities and local governments are limited by this phrase in the Texas Local Government Code: “notwithstanding any other law.”
  • This prevents local governments from restricting the sale of firearms
• Texas Government Code also limits local government ability to interfere with firearm sales in times of emergency

Update to : Texas Attorney General Opinion: Essential Business? What is it?

What question will the Texas Attorney General will answer?

whether a firearm retailer is an essential business for purposes of an emergency declaration

Who requested the opinion? State Representative Dustin Burrows

RQ-0341-KP

Who: Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship at the University of Chicago

What: www.ShopInPlaceChi.com

How does it work? Connects people to neighborhood small businesses that are still selling products essential for residents sheltering at home

Institute for Justice | ShopInPlaceChi.com Helps Chicagoans Track Local Small Businesses Offering Essential Products

Airbnb is offering “free or subsidized housing” for 100,000 people working as frontline healthcare.

How will the offer be executed?

• fees will be waived
• include new protocols around cleanliness to account for COVID-19
•  minimum of 72 hours between stays
• a fund established for those who want to provide monetary support, with 100 percent of all proceeds going to nonprofits working on COVID-19 relief
• partnerships with Red Cross, the International Rescue Committee, the International Medical Corps & other non-profit groups

TechCrunch | Airbnb to provide free or subsidized housing for 100,000 COVID-19 healthcare workers

3 Reasons for no compensation for COVID-19 shutdowns?

• Precedent. US Supreme Court precedent doesn’t support it. Remember Kelo?
• Police Powers. Government has police powers to protect health & safety that are excepted from the Takings Clause
• History. During the 1918-19 Flue epidemic, the last time of a health epidemic, there was no compensation.

Reason | Does the Takings Clause Require Compensation for Coronavirus Shutdowns?

What is the Legal Footing Behind Governor Abbott’s Coronavirus Executive Order? | The Texan

What question will the Texas Attorney General will answer?

whether a firearm retailer is an essential business for purposes of an emergency declaration

Who requested the opinion? State Representative Dustin Burrows

RQ-0341-KP

The Attorney General Opinion: KP-0294 (2020)

What question did the Attorney General Opinion answer? Whether real estate inspectors need regulatory go ahead from the State Plumbing Board to conduct camera inspections of sewer lines.

Why is this an issue? The Texas Real Estate Commission passed a rule requiring inspectors to also have a plumbing license & the State Plumbing Board defined service of a plumber to include camera inspections

The answer: The Plumbing Board rule goes too far because it impermissibly imposes an additional burden, limit, or condition in addition to what the Legislature has required

The legislation: SB 1079 (2020 | CA)

What would SB 1079 do?

• Allow cities to impose vacancy taxes on housing that is vacant for more than 90 days
• Allow the cities to use eminent domain to use the property for affordable housing

Has this been tried another cities? Yes,

• vacancies dropped 22% in Vancouver
• Vancouver also provides the following 3 types of property owners varying exemptions from the tax:
  • Individuals
    Land under development
    Corporations, trustees and business partners

Cal Matters | Could vacancy fines ease California’s housing crisis? Vancouver tries it, with mixed results

2 types of property that can be condemned under a federally declared emergency like the COVID19 declaration:

• real property for physical facilities the government may need
• supplies such as medicine, food, equipment, parts, etc.

What allows the condemnations? The Stafford Act

Lexology | Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP | Condemnation and COVID-19: When National Emergencies and Eminent Domain Collide

Do municipalities have authority to set the amount of time a pawnshop holds personal property? No

Do municipalities have the authority to require pawnshops to electronically report personal property to law enforcement? No

Why?

• Texas Pawnshop Act preempts municipal regulation
• Section 371.005 specifically gives the Legislature exclusive authority over the operation of pawnshops
• The ordinance also expressly conflicts with administrative regulations authorized by the Pawnshop Act

Is there wiggle room for municipal regulation? yes

• municipalities can regulate things related to pawnshops that are not the operation of the pawnshop
• municipalities can reduce the amount of time pawnbrokers must retain purchased goods to less than 20 days

KP-0293 (2020)

Where: Rhode Island

What: Specify that eminent domain can be used for airspace easements by the state Department of Transportation to remove trees and other property that obstruct incoming aircraft at the state’s five general aviation facilities

Why legislation? conform eminent domain laws to FAA mandates

Newport this week | Proposed Legislation Creates Airspace Easements