The checkerboard pattern of land ownership in the American West has long posed a tricky legal question: when federally-owned parcels abut diagonally through private land, can someone move from one public parcel to the next without stepping on private property and still be lawfully using public land? That scenario, which is commonly called “corner-crossing”, is at the heart of a recent case with wide implications. In the case known as Iron Bar Holdings, LLC v. Cape the facts

Boston is preparing for one of its most significant downtown zoning changes in decades. In September 2025, the Boston Planning & Development Agency approved a plan that would reshape what can be built in the city’s historic core. The new rules open the door to much taller residential buildings, modernize long-standing land use restrictions, and encourage the reuse of older commercial buildings that have struggled since the pandemic. The goal is to breathe new life into the do

Yesterday Governor Maura Healey announced draft regulations that would shorten the state’s environmental review timeline for many housing projects from over a year to just 30 days. The proposal, released on September 9, would allow qualifying developments to bypass the lengthy Environmental Impact Report process and instead complete review with only the shorter Environmental Notification Form. Healey described the change as a game changer, arguing that it will cut red tape, l

NOTE: I wrote this in the Summer of 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. I didn't have a place to publish it at the time. However, now that Off the Docket is up and running, I might as well share it - no point in keeping it stashed away on iCloud forever. In the fall of 1998, pig farmers in Peninsular Malaysia began falling ill with a mysterious and often fatal disease. The symptoms were severe. High fever, respiratory distress, and inflammation of the brain. In l

On March 4, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a sharply divided 5 - 4 ruling in City and County of San Francisco v. Environmental Protection Agency , 604 U.S. ___, 145 S. Ct. 704, that places clear limits on how the Environmental Protection Agency may regulate water quality through its permitting authority under the Clean Water Act (CWA). The decision invalidates two provisions of San Francisco’s discharge permit that, in the Court’s view, improperly made the city responsib