A little-known aspect of property rights is the concept of adverse possession, sometimes called squatters rights. Founded in common law, the concept holds that a non-owner of property may acquire ownership of that property after use or possession for a specified amount of time. NPR reports of a recent case involving adverse possession. For many…
Few people care about property rights until it is their property that is threatened. For example, when the federal government began using eminent domain to seize property in south Texas, property owners objected. They correctly claimed that their property rights were being violated. However, they said nothing about rural Texans being threatened at the same…
Today, the United States Supreme Court announced two unanimous rulings in cases that had been filed by the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF). This follows another successful ruling from the Court in April (Wilkins v. United States). In Sackett v. EPA, the Court significantly narrowed the EPA’s authority under the Clean Water Act. The ruling will…
Few people deny that America has a severe shortage of affordable housing for low- and moderate-income households. While there is agreement that a problem exists, there is little agreement about a remedy. Government officials at every level, along with housing advocates, frequently put forth a variety of policy proposals in an attempt to address the…
In early February, a Florida judge upheld an a provision in the Destin city charter that limits buildings to a height of six stories. The city had been sued by the Destin Fishing Fleet Inc. which claimed that the value of its property value had been diminished. The city called the ruling “a landmark private…
Texas Sen. Lois Kolkhorst has introduced SB 147, a bill that would prohibit citizens, companies, governments, and entities from China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia from purchasing land in Texas. Kolkhorst, who has long paid lip service to property rights, is now proposing to violate property rights. SB 147 is an injustice. One of the…
In 2015, Hennepin County, Minnesota, seized a condominium for $15,000 in unpaid property taxes. A year later, the condominium was sold for $40,000. The county kept all of the money in an act that many call home equity theft. The condo owner sued and the US Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit ruled for…
The Institute for Justice (IJ) has filed a lawsuit against the city of Jacksonville, North Carolina. The city recently passed an ordinance that prohibits food trucks from any property that is within 250 feet of a restaurant or a residence. That means that 96 percent of the city is off-limits to food trucks. The law…
Libertarians have long expressed disdain for intellectual property rights. As an example, Jeffrey A Tucker writes that “ownership is impossible as regards ideas, and no one has a right to profit as such.” Tucker is correct that nobody can own an idea. He is grossly wrong when he claims that no one has a right…
In May, a federal appeals court upheld a Texas law that prohibits social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube from discriminating against users based on their ideas. In prohibiting such actions, Texas has declared war on free speech. Proponents of the law claim that social media companies are guilty of censorship when they block,…
Declaring access to beaches a “fundamental human right,” two legislators in Massachusetts have filed a bill that would change the boundary of private property along the ocean. The bill would mandate public access to any beach in Massachusetts from the high tide line to the water. Current law recognizes private property to the low tide…
Misunderstandings about property rights abound, with nuisance near the top of the list. A controversy in California provides an interesting case study in nuisance. The concept of nuisance as a violation of property rights has its roots in common law. A property owner, according to the concept, has a right to the peaceful use of…