The Takings Clause and Permits

The United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments today in Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Managment District.  A landowner in central Florida sought a permit to develop his property.  The Water Managment district required him to set aside 11 out of his 14.9 acres for conservation and pay for improvements on state owned land several miles away from his property that would have cost between $10,000 and $150,000.  The landowner refused and was denied a permit to develop his property.  He sued claiming that the refusal to issue a permit constituted a taking without just compensation under the 5th Amendment.


http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2013/0115/Supreme-Court-hears-oral-arguments-in-Florida-property-rights-case

Transcript of Oral Arguments: http://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/11-1447.pdf

House Speaker Rules

Although nothing unexpected occurred today in the election for Speaker of the House of Representatives, I did learn that apparently you don't have to be a member of the house to be elected Speaker.  It has never happened before and is very unlikely in the future, but the rules do not preclude it.

http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/275419-boehner-re-elected-speaker-with-some-gop-defections

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Some of the more interesting laws that come into effect on January 1, 2013 are listed in this article.  The most curious one is the plastic bottle ban in Concord, Massachusetts.

Update to Earlier Michigan Emergency Manager Law Post

The discussion found in my blog post from November 2012 about the applicability of MCL 8.4 to the rejection by referendum of Michigan's Emergency Manager Law Public Act 4 at http://koehlerlegal.blogspot.com/2012/11/repeal-by-referendum-in-michigan.html will be moot when the newly signed emergency manager law takes affect in a few months. 

The new law was signed today by Governor Snyder.  http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20121227/POLITICS02/212270407/Gov-Snyder-signs-new-Michigan-emergency-manager-bill?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE.  If the vote had been an initiative repealing or amending Public Act 4 rather than a referendum on Public Act 4 then the initiative could have only been amended or repealed by another vote of people or a 3/4 majority of both chambers of the state legislature.

s/ Kurt Koehler
308 1/2 S. State Street Suite 36
Ann Arbor, Michigan (MI) 48198 (Washtenaw County)

Santa Bank Notes

Source: Massachusetts Historical Society (see link below)

Source: Massachusetts Historical Society
Closeup of the Howard Banking Co. Santa Claus

Before the U.S. Government issued paper money, individual banks would issue bank notes that were redeemable for a stated quantity of gold at that particular bank.  There were as many as 8,000 different bank notes in circulation in the mid-1800s.  So many that a monthly digest was printed detailing how much each was worth in particular parts of the country.  Some of these bank notes had images of Santa Claus on them.  The first note above and the closeup below are from the Howard Banking Company of Boston.   The idea was apparently to inspire confidence in the bank by associating it with the figure of Santa Claus and to inspire collectors to hang onto the note and never actually redeem it for gold.  The second note below is from the Saint Nicholas Bank of New York.  An old case involving the St. Nicholas Bank can be found here: http://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/146/240/


Source:
http://nutmegcollector.blogspot.com/2011/12/santa-claus-as-depicted-on-obsolete.html

Source:
http://nutmegcollector.blogspot.com/2011/12/santa-claus-as-depicted-on-obsolete.html

Santa Claus became a cultural icon in Nineteenth Century American after the publication of Twas the Night Before Christmas in about 1822-1823.  It was anonymously published around Christmas in 1823.  The actual author of the poem is in dispute.  Traditionally Clement Park Moore is credited with writing the poem, but others attribute it to MAJ. Henry Livingston, Jr. 


Information about the Howard Banking Company Note: http://www.masshist.org/objects/cabinet/december2001/december2001.html

Information about the Howard Banking Company of Boston: http://books.google.com/books?id=UBUWAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA960&dq=howard+banking+company+of+boston&hl=en&sa=X&ei=KXLYULqHA8euqgHF5IHYAQ&ved=0CEAQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=howard%20banking%20company%20of%20boston&f=false

NPR Planet Money Podcast on the history of Paper Money: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/12/07/166747693/episode-421-the-birth-of-the-dollar-bill

Information about Santa Claus notes and the Saint Nicholas Bank Note: http://nutmegcollector.blogspot.com/2011/12/santa-claus-as-depicted-on-obsolete.html

The Twas the Night Before Christmas Poem: http://www.carols.org.uk/twas_the_night_before_christmas.htm

http://www.night.net/christmas/twas-night01.html

s/ Kurt Koehler
308 1/2 S. State Street Suite 36
Ann Arbor, Michigan (Washtenaw County)

Vatican Pardon

Criminal trials in a small state that rarely has them are interesting to watch. The case of the pope's butler, Paolo Gabriele, who was accused of leaking confidential Vatican papers to the Italian press ended in a conviction for theft and an 18 month prison sentence in October. The case was a bench trial before a three judge panel. The Vatican state civil and penal courts are separate from the church's ecclesial courts as the Vatican state is a separate entity. The Vatican uses Italian criminal procedure and law for the most part. There are no jury trials, most prison sentences are served in Italy though these are rare, and there is no plea bargaining. Some cases are handled by the Italian courts. Today the pope issued a pardoned and commuted the prison sentence of Gabriele.

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20121222/LIFESTYLE04/212220357/Pope-pardons-ex-butler-who-stole-leaked-documents?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|p

http://abcnews.go.com/International/paolo-gabriele-popes-butler-convicted-sentenced-18-months/t/story?id=17412012

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2012/09/29/vatican-pope-butler-trial/1602295/

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2012/05/paolo_gabriele_case_how_does_the_vatican_deal_with_criminals_.html

s/ Kurt Koehler
308 1/2 S. State St. Suite 36
Ann Arbor, MI 48198 (Washtenaw County)

The Senate Filibuster - Common Cause v. Biden

Recently, a group of democrats (John Lewis (GA), Michael Michaud (ME), Henry Johnson (GA), and Keith Ellison (MN)) serving in the House of Representatives along with a non-profit group called Common Cause and three undocumented immigrants sued the United States Senate over the Senate filibuster rule.  The Plaintiffs cited the DREAM Act on immigration reform and the DISCLOSE Act on campaign finance reform as examples of legislation that failed to come to a vote in the Senate due to a filibuster.  The case, Common Cause v. Biden (Docket Number: 12-775),  alleged that the filibuster's 60 vote requirement to end debate (cloture) was unconstitutional because it was not consistent with majority rule.  The Plaintiffs also challenged Senate Rule 5 which allows the Senate's rules to continue from one congress to the next unless changed.  The Plaintiffs argued that the Senate should be able to change its rules by a majority vote

The defendants moved to dismiss the case under FRCP 12(b)(1) for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.  The defendants asserted that the Plaintiffs lacked standing to bring the suit, that the suit is barred by the speech and debate clause of the constitution, and that the complaint is an non-justiciable political question. 

Judge Emmet Sullivan of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia held that the Plaintiffs lacked standing to sue.  The house plaintiffs alleged that they were injured as the filibuster effectively nullified their votes in the house.  They claimed that they had a procedural right to have a bill fairly considered by the Senate though they did not claim a right to have legislation passed by the Senate.  This was not convincing to the court which could not identify a right that they were denied by the filibuster.  The DREAM Act plaintiffs claimed that they were injured by not being able to benefit from the DREAM and DISCLOSE Acts.  The court ruled that this was a hypothetical injury as neither law has been passed by congress and there is no guarantee that they will be.  Judge Sullivan also stated that the court would offend the separation of powers if it were to strike down the filibuster rule.  The court ruled that the challenge to the filibuster rule presented a non-justiciable political question.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/274277-judge-dismisses-lawsuit-from-house-dems-challenging-filibuster

The opinion is here: https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2012cv0775-25

More information about the Filibuster can e found in NPR's Planet Money Podcast: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/12/11/166993494/episode-422-schoolhouse-rock-is-a-lie-or-how-the-filibuster-ate-washington

s/ Kurt Koehler
The Law Office of Kurt T. Koehler,
 308 1/2 S. State Street
Ann Arbor, Michigan (MI) 48198 (Washtenaw County)