The Vermont Law Review has published an article authored by me and my Damon Key colleagues (and fellow law bloggers) Robert H. Thomas and Tred Eyerly, Of Woodchucks and Prune Yards: A View of Judicial Takings From the Trenches, 35 Vt. L. Rev. 437 (2010)(Download here)

Our introduction is a reference to Justice Scalia’s quip in mid-opinion about pondering imponderables.

Justice BREYER must either (a) grapple with the artificial question of what would constitute a judicial taking if there were such a thing as a judicial taking (reminiscent of the perplexing question how much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?), or (b) answer in the negative what he considers to be the “unnecessary” constitutional question whether there is such a thing as a judicial taking.