Government officials must obtain a warrant before forcibly entering a home (absent consent or an emergency). That rule goes back to the Founding. But in a series of cases, culminating in Camara v. San

In 2020, a police SWAT team blew up Vicki Baker's house after a fugitive barricaded himself inside. On this episode, we ask: who pays the tab when the government damages or destroys private property f

Civil forfeiture is a civil rights nightmare, allowing police and prosecutors to seize billions of dollars worth of property annuallycash, cars, houses, bank accounts, and morewithout charging anyo

In 2005, in the case of Kelo v. New London, the Supreme Court allowed officials to seize and raze an entire neighborhood of well-maintained homes and businesses in the hopes that someone else could bu

On this episode: Berman v. Parker, the Supreme Court's decision in 1954 to abandon previous constitutional limits on the government's power to take property from Person A to give it to Person B. The d

On this episode, we take a break from case law and go way back to the beginning to examine the origins and justifications of private property. Click here for episode transcript. Tyler v. Henn

On this episode we return to the subject of zoning. With the doors to federal courthouses barred shut, advocates for reforming zoning have turned to state courts and state constitutions. Most famously

Is qualified immunity a narrow doctrine focused on protecting the police when they make split second decisions? If you listen to its defenders you would get that impression. The reality is far, far

In 1926, in the case of Euclid v. Ambler, the Supreme Court upheld zoning, giving elected officials and city planners vast, new, and largely unchecked power to tell people what they can and cannot do

On Episode 3, we journey back to a lost world: the world before zoning. And we take a look at a trio of historic property rights cases. In In re Lee Sing, San Francisco officials tried to wipe Chinato