Section 8 vouchers take center stage in dispute between landlord and disabled tenant

Federal law bars housing discrimination against a person with a disability. Under the Fair Housing Act, landlords and sellers must provide “reasonable accommodations” to give someone with a disability “equal opportunity” to rent or buy a home. These cases examine whether the FHA requires landlords to accept so-called Section 8 vouchers from tenants who are too disabled to work.

read more

End-Running Warrants: Purchasing Data under the Fourth Amendment and the State Action Problem

Rather than obtain warrants, law enforcement and intelligence agencies now purchase mass datasets of precise geolocation information from third-party brokers. Scholarship suggests whether the government must obtain a warrant to purchase data relies on whether users have a reasonable expectation of privacy. But this Note suggests that this privacy analysis misses the crux of the controversy.

read more

U.S. Supreme Court Decisions, Both Decided May 25, 2023, Protect Private Property Owners from Overreach by Local (Tax Sale) and Federal (Wetlands) Regulators: Tyler v. Hennepin County and Sackett v. EPA

This piece analyzes two U.S. Supreme Court rulings that expand the constitutional protections afforded private property owners in two regulatory contexts—tax sales administered by local governments and the EPA’s classification of wetlands as “waters under the United States” under the Clean Water Act.

read more