Tuesday, April 1, 2025

Regulation

Paying the fox to watch the chickens: The war on private housing

Despite the rise in homelessness, the federal government continues to raise the barrier to creating shelter for those without permanent housing. Infusing bad actors with HUD money is another layer. In September the Biden admin....

The calculus of consent

Enjoying the fruits of the world’s economic powerhouse make it hard to dismiss the attributes that set the U.S. on top. It also makes it a challenge to ignore those things that so clearly...
Stricter land-use regulations force builders to spread their efforts over a large number of relatively small projects, limiting the number of homes they’re able to build. This, in turn, limits their ability to invest in better homebuilding technology or otherwise take advantage of economies of scale.

Is land-use regulation holding back construction productivity?

Ed Glaeser is perhaps the pre-eminent urban economist working today, and I’ve cited his work repeatedly when looking at land-use restrictions and burdens on new development. So I was very interested to see he’s coauthored...
The U.S. Supreme Court justices return to the bench the second week of June to issue opinions in argued cases. The court has somewhere around 28 decisions left to release before it begins its summer recess.

Major U.S. Supreme Court decisions coming down the track MAJOR UPDATE

June 28, 2024 Update: The Supreme Court in an unprecedented victory for multifamily and other businesses, has today reversed its 40-year-old decision in Chevron v. Natural Resource Defense Council. This law governed how courts...
Corporate retreat

Why corporate America is retreating from social activism

In January, Axios reported a developing trend in corporate America: corporations across the United States were backing away from DEI, which had become a “minefield” for companies. Following a multi-year boom in the Diversity, Equity,...

The price of disorder

I was once pitched a deal in the heart of the Amazon—Manaus, Brazil. What was I buying? Firstly, a commercial asset. But I couldn’t shake my concern around governance. The sanctity of a contract...

Sign of the times: Squatters insurance

Landlord insurance typically doesn’t cover costs accrued in a squatter situation. Property insurance, which offers short-term rental insurance, created a unique type of coverage coming out of the COVID pandemic, that is specifically designated...
If this debate eventually does come to a boil, the Supreme Court may need to further clarify its position on Skidmore jurisprudence. But for now, appellate litigators would be wise to steer clear of deference-based argumentation.

New game post-Chevron

For decades, the judicial doctrine called “Chevron deference” dominated American administrative law. In the aftermath of Chevron’s demise in Loper Bright v. Raimondo, however, a new legal debate is brewing over an 80-year-old judicial precedent:...

DOJ sues RealPage for housing inflation government caused

President Biden, Vice-President Harris and their Department of Justice have come out strongly against RealPage for their algorithm designed to help landlords better understand current market conditions in setting their rents. They claim it enables...

Lawsuits coming as courts question federal agencies

You might have seen the headlines: “Supreme Court Just Defeated Big Government" (Fox News), “Guts Agency Power” (Axios), “Imperils an Array of Federal Rules” (New York Times). In August 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a...

Our cities are zoned out

Urban zoning is an issue on which the left and the right often find common ground: they don’t like it. The left often because they want the freedom to build multifamily and affordable housing...
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