A Decade-Old Statute Pays Dividends for REIT Investors and Their Attorneys

Perhaps real estate investors and their attorneys have reason to be cautiously optimistic: economic reports released this week indicate signs of life in the real estate market.  As reported by the Associated Press, the National Association of Realtors saw increases in pending home sales for the ninth straight month.  And for the first time in six months, construction spending saw an increase.  Optimists say these numbers, in conjunction with recent reports that home prices are climbing, indicate long-term recovery for both the residential and commercial real estate sectors.

Yet many analysts argue that these spikes are temporary.  The growth in construction spending amounted to a measly 0.04%, and the rise in pending sales contracts over the last nine months is attributable to the homebuyer tax credit, which the Obama Administration and Congress recently extended.

I suppose time will tell which analysis is correct.  But while commentators continue to debate, real estate investors have shifted their focus from traditional residential and commercial endeavors to a sector less affected by the downturn: healthcare properties.

Continue ReadingA Decade-Old Statute Pays Dividends for REIT Investors and Their Attorneys

Are the Court’s Unexpected Sixth Amendment Revolutions Coming to an End?

bastilleThis is the sixth and final in a series of posts reviewing last term’s criminal cases in the United States Supreme Court and previewing the new term.

When it comes to the constitutional rights of criminal defendants at the Supreme Court, the conventional story of the past half-century goes something like this: Responding to the embarrassing state of criminal justice in the American South in the civil rights era, the activist Warren Court led a revolution in defendants’ rights.  The Court held that most of the basic Bill of Rights protections applied to the states, liberally construed the scope of those rights, and adopted new exclusionary rules to enforce the rights.  The activism of the Warren Court provoked a popular backlash, however, and a series of Republican presidents succeeded in moving the Court to the right.  The Court’s hard-core conservatives  have pushed aggressively to overturn landmark Warren Court precedents, while the more moderate conservatives have charted an unpredictable path, caught between their skepticism of the Warren Court agenda and their reluctance to overturn established precedent.  Meanwhile, the liberals have been on the defensive for a generation, able to do little more than occasionally preserve the gains of an earlier era.

What is one to make, then, of the twin Sixth Amendment revolutions of the past decade? 

Against all expectations, two of the Court’s hard-core conservatives (Scalia and Thomas) joined with a subset of its liberals to expand the Sixth Amendment rights to a jury trial and to confront accusers.  Both revolutions overturned settled law and opened many new avenues for defendants to challenge their convictions and sentences. 

But now there are good reasons to wonder whether the revolutions are over. 

Continue ReadingAre the Court’s Unexpected Sixth Amendment Revolutions Coming to an End?

MPS Politics: Visits to Two Different Decks

Two sessions bearing on the future of Milwaukee Public Schools took place simultaneously Tuesday night, and each drew about 75 people who care about education in the city.

Beyond that, it’s hard to think of much the two events had in common. At one, pretty much everybody thought that the way MPS is run is a big part of the problem and that it is time to make major changes.  At the other, the emphasis was on forces beyond MPS that affect schools, and everyone agreed the existing governance system should be defended. 

Continue ReadingMPS Politics: Visits to Two Different Decks
Newer Posts
Older Posts