Please enjoy the latest edition of Short Circuit, a weekly feature written by a bunch of people at the Institute for Justice.
New cert petition: When the gov't takes property for a public use, it must provide just compensation – including when the gov't destroys property. But last year, the Fifth Circuit held that that time-honored rule doesn't apply when the gov't has a really, really good reason to destroy property, and thus the City of McKinney, Tex. need not pay an innocent homeowner for catastrophic damage from a SWAT raid in pursuit of a (trespassing) fugitive. But wait! The gov't is always supposed to have a good reason when it's taking private property, and there is no historically based exception to the compensation requirement for law enforcement. Click here to learn more.
