Real Estate & Property Law

Mortgage Modification As A Taking

By Robert Thomas (inversecondemnation.com)

Worth reading: Government's Promise: Taking Away Property?, commentary from U. Chicago lawprof Randy Picker on a NY Times editorial which argues "[t]he first step toward providing the [economic] relief is to include in the package a measure to allow hard-pressed homeowners to have the terms of the mortgages modified under bankruptcy court protection, an avenue currently denied them by an outdated and anti-consumer bent to the law." Professor Picker suggests "the central question is whether the rights of the mortgage holder are sufficiently property like that they are entitled to constitutional protection from after-the-fact taking..."

In other words, can government simply rewrite long-established rules to wipe out an interest without being liable for a taking?  More here. 

Full post as published by inversecondemnation on January 20, 2009 (boomark / email).