District Judge, United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida
Judge Ed Artau is a United States District Judge for the Southern District of
Florida. He was nominated by President Donald Trump for appointment to
the United States District Court in May of 2025, and confirmed by the United
States Senate in September of 2025. Prior to his confirmation, Judge Artau
was appointed by Governor Ron DeSantis to the Fourth District Court of
Appeal of Florida, where he served as an appellate judge from 2020 until
2025. Prior to being an appellate judge, Judge Artau was appointed by
Governor Rick Scott to the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit in Palm Beach County,
Florida, where he served as a trial judge from 2014 until 2020.
Judge Artau is also an Adjunct Professor at St. Thomas University College of
Law and has served as the Dean of the Advanced Judicial Studies College
and on the faculty of both the Florida Judicial College and the Advanced
Judicial Studies College.
Judge Artau has previously served as the Chair of the Fifteenth Circuit
Judicial Nominating Commission, Vice Chair of the Fourth District Court of
Appeal Judicial Nominating Commission, Parliamentarian of the Appellate
Court Rules Committee, Vice Chair of the Judicial Nominating Procedures
Committee, and as a representative on the Florida Court Education Council.
Before his appointment to the bench, Judge Artau served as General Counsel
to the South Florida Water Management District, where he commenced his
public service as a senior litigation attorney. Prior to this role, Judge Artau
managed his own law firm after having served in the litigation departments of
the law firms of Proskauer Rose, L.L.P. and Hodgson Russ, L.L.P.
Judge Artau is a graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center where he
served as a law review editor and Vice-President of the Georgetown Student
Chapter of the Federalist Society. Judge Artau completed his undergraduate
studies at Nova Southeastern University, where he graduated cum laude and
was later awarded a Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, for his commitment to
public service, academia, and the law.
Judge Artau is a founder of the first Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist
Society in Florida and is the 2025 recipient of the Good Shepherd Award,
presented by the Florida Chapters of the Federalist Society in recognition of his “Commitment to the Rule of Law and the Ideals of the Federalist Society.”
Senior Legal Counsel, Pacific Legal Foundation
Before becoming an attorney, James had been a productive member of society working as an exploration geologist in the late 1970s throughout the southwestern United States. However, after several years of dealing with irrational government bureaucrats and environmental policies untethered from reality, James decided that what the world needs is more lawyers — if they are willing to fight for rationality in regulatory regimes, property rights, and liberty.
James attended the University of Arizona College of Law in Tucson, where he served as an editor for the Law Review and received a J.D. degree in 1983. He had previously received a Masters degree in geological sciences from Brown University and an undergraduate degree from Hamilton College in New York. James received the Professional Achievement Award from the University of Arizona Alumni Association in 2018.
James has worked with Pacific Legal Foundation since 1983, litigating cases from Alaska to Florida. He is a member of the Federalist Society’s Environmental Law and Property Rights Practice Group’s Executive Committee, a member of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers, and an honorary member of Owners Counsel of America, an organization comprised of eminent domain attorneys who represent property owners. The Owners Counsel awarded James its Crystal Eagle award in 2013. In 2022, James was awarded the Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Prize at the William & Mary College of Law. The prize is awarded annually to an individual whose work has advanced the cause of property rights and has contributed to the overall awareness of the important role property rights occupy in the broader scheme of individual liberty.
In 2001, James successfully argued a major property rights case, Palazzolo v. Rhode Island, before the United States Supreme Court, a case which affirmed that rights in regulated property do not disappear when land is bought and sold. He has written extensively on all aspects of property rights and environmental law and frequently speaks on these subjects throughout the nation.
When James is not suing the government he enjoys skiing faster than he should, bicycling, hiking, swimming, and spending quality time with his wife, family, and grandchild.
Mr. Burling’s book Nowhere to Live: The Hidden Story of America’s Housing Crisis is available now on Amazon.
James is a member of the bar only in the states of Alaska and California.
John Hampton Baumgartner, Jr. Professor of Real Property Law; Faculty Director, Georgetown Environmental Law and Policy Program; Faculty Director, Georgetown Climate Resource Center, Georgetown Law Center
Professor Byrne joined the Law Center faculty in 1985. After graduation from the University of Virginia law school, he served as a law clerk to Judge Frank Coffin and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell and then worked as an associate with the D.C. firm of Covington & Burling. He teaches and writes in the areas of Property, Land Use, Constitutional Law, and Higher Education Law and Policy. He served as Associate Dean for the JD Program from 1997 to 2000. He was John Carroll Research Professor in 1996-97.
Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
ILYA SOMIN is Professor of Law at George Mason University and the B. Kenneth Simon Chair in Constitutional Studies at the Cato Institute. His research focuses on constitutional law, property law, democratic theory, federalism, and migration rights. He is the author of Free to Move: Foot Voting, Migration, and Political Freedom (Oxford University Press, revised and expanded edition, 2022), Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government is Smarter (Stanford University Press, revised and expanded second edition, 2016), and The Grasping Hand: Kelo v. City of New London and the Limits of Eminent Domain (University of Chicago Press, 2015, rev. paperback ed., 2016), coauthor of A Conspiracy Against Obamacare: The Volokh Conspiracy and the Health Care Case (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), and co-editor of Eminent Domain: A Comparative Perspective (Cambridge University Press, 2017). Democracy and Political Ignorance has been translated into Italian and Japanese.
Somin’s work has appeared in numerous scholarly journals, including the Yale Law Journal, Stanford Law Review, Northwestern University Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal, Critical Review, and others. Somin has also published articles in a variety of popular press outlets, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, CNN, NBC, The Atlantic, USA Today, Boston Globe, US News and World Report, South China Morning Post, National Law Journal and Reason. He has been quoted or interviewed by the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Time, Newsweek, The Economist, the Christian Science Monitor, the Financial Times, The Guardian, the Associated Press, CBS, MSNBC, NPR, BBC, Reuters, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Al Jazeera, and the Voice of America, among other media.
Somin’s writings have been cited in decisions by the United States Supreme Court, multiple state supreme courts and lower federal courts, and the Supreme Court of Israel. He is co-counsel for the plaintiffs in VOS Selections, Inc. v. Trump, a case challenging the constitutionality of President Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs. Somin has testified on the use of drones for targeted killing in the War on Terror before the US Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights. In 2009, he testified on property rights issues at the United States Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Somin writes regularly for the popular Volokh Conspiracy law and politics blog, now affiliated with Reason magazine (previously affiliated with the Washington Post from 2014 to 2017). From 2006 to 2013, he served as Co-Editor of the Supreme Court Economic Review, one of the country’s top-rated law and economics journals.
Somin has served as a visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He has also been a visiting professor or scholar at the Georgetown University Law Center, the University of Hamburg, Germany, the University of Torcuato Di Tella in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Uriel Reichman University in Israel, and Zhengzhou University in China. He is a University Affiliate of the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, and an affiliated faculty member of the George Mason University Institute for Immigration Research. Before joining the faculty at George Mason, Somin was the John M. Olin Fellow in Law at Northwestern University Law School in 2002-2003. In 2001-2002, he clerked for the Hon. Judge Jerry E. Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Professor Somin earned his B.A., Summa Cum Laude, at Amherst College, M.A. in Political Science from Harvard University, and J.D. from Yale Law School.
Freda H. Alverson Professor of Law, George Washington University School of Law; Founder, National Zoning Atlas
Sara C. Bronin is a Mexican-American architect, attorney, George Washington University professor, and changemaker whose interdisciplinary work focuses on how law and policy can foster more equitable, sustainable, well-designed, and connected places. She wrote Key to the City: How Zoning Shapes Our World, and she founded and leads the National Zoning Atlas and National Preservation Atlas, which illuminate land use rules influencing our economy, society, health, and happiness. She also served in a Presidentially-appointed, Senate-confirmed role chairing the federal historic preservation agency.
District Judge, United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida
Judge Ed Artau is a United States District Judge for the Southern District of
Florida. He was nominated by President Donald Trump for appointment to
the United States District Court in May of 2025, and confirmed by the United
States Senate in September of 2025. Prior to his confirmation, Judge Artau
was appointed by Governor Ron DeSantis to the Fourth District Court of
Appeal of Florida, where he served as an appellate judge from 2020 until
2025. Prior to being an appellate judge, Judge Artau was appointed by
Governor Rick Scott to the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit in Palm Beach County,
Florida, where he served as a trial judge from 2014 until 2020.
Judge Artau is also an Adjunct Professor at St. Thomas University College of
Law and has served as the Dean of the Advanced Judicial Studies College
and on the faculty of both the Florida Judicial College and the Advanced
Judicial Studies College.
Judge Artau has previously served as the Chair of the Fifteenth Circuit
Judicial Nominating Commission, Vice Chair of the Fourth District Court of
Appeal Judicial Nominating Commission, Parliamentarian of the Appellate
Court Rules Committee, Vice Chair of the Judicial Nominating Procedures
Committee, and as a representative on the Florida Court Education Council.
Before his appointment to the bench, Judge Artau served as General Counsel
to the South Florida Water Management District, where he commenced his
public service as a senior litigation attorney. Prior to this role, Judge Artau
managed his own law firm after having served in the litigation departments of
the law firms of Proskauer Rose, L.L.P. and Hodgson Russ, L.L.P.
Judge Artau is a graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center where he
served as a law review editor and Vice-President of the Georgetown Student
Chapter of the Federalist Society. Judge Artau completed his undergraduate
studies at Nova Southeastern University, where he graduated cum laude and
was later awarded a Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, for his commitment to
public service, academia, and the law.
Judge Artau is a founder of the first Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist
Society in Florida and is the 2025 recipient of the Good Shepherd Award,
presented by the Florida Chapters of the Federalist Society in recognition of his “Commitment to the Rule of Law and the Ideals of the Federalist Society.”
Freda H. Alverson Professor of Law, George Washington University School of Law; Founder, National Zoning Atlas
Sara C. Bronin is a Mexican-American architect, attorney, George Washington University professor, and changemaker whose interdisciplinary work focuses on how law and policy can foster more equitable, sustainable, well-designed, and connected places. She wrote Key to the City: How Zoning Shapes Our World, and she founded and leads the National Zoning Atlas and National Preservation Atlas, which illuminate land use rules influencing our economy, society, health, and happiness. She also served in a Presidentially-appointed, Senate-confirmed role chairing the federal historic preservation agency.
Senior Legal Counsel, Pacific Legal Foundation
Before becoming an attorney, James had been a productive member of society working as an exploration geologist in the late 1970s throughout the southwestern United States. However, after several years of dealing with irrational government bureaucrats and environmental policies untethered from reality, James decided that what the world needs is more lawyers — if they are willing to fight for rationality in regulatory regimes, property rights, and liberty.
James attended the University of Arizona College of Law in Tucson, where he served as an editor for the Law Review and received a J.D. degree in 1983. He had previously received a Masters degree in geological sciences from Brown University and an undergraduate degree from Hamilton College in New York. James received the Professional Achievement Award from the University of Arizona Alumni Association in 2018.
James has worked with Pacific Legal Foundation since 1983, litigating cases from Alaska to Florida. He is a member of the Federalist Society’s Environmental Law and Property Rights Practice Group’s Executive Committee, a member of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers, and an honorary member of Owners Counsel of America, an organization comprised of eminent domain attorneys who represent property owners. The Owners Counsel awarded James its Crystal Eagle award in 2013. In 2022, James was awarded the Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Prize at the William & Mary College of Law. The prize is awarded annually to an individual whose work has advanced the cause of property rights and has contributed to the overall awareness of the important role property rights occupy in the broader scheme of individual liberty.
In 2001, James successfully argued a major property rights case, Palazzolo v. Rhode Island, before the United States Supreme Court, a case which affirmed that rights in regulated property do not disappear when land is bought and sold. He has written extensively on all aspects of property rights and environmental law and frequently speaks on these subjects throughout the nation.
When James is not suing the government he enjoys skiing faster than he should, bicycling, hiking, swimming, and spending quality time with his wife, family, and grandchild.
Mr. Burling’s book Nowhere to Live: The Hidden Story of America’s Housing Crisis is available now on Amazon.
James is a member of the bar only in the states of Alaska and California.
John Hampton Baumgartner, Jr. Professor of Real Property Law; Faculty Director, Georgetown Environmental Law and Policy Program; Faculty Director, Georgetown Climate Resource Center, Georgetown Law Center
Professor Byrne joined the Law Center faculty in 1985. After graduation from the University of Virginia law school, he served as a law clerk to Judge Frank Coffin and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell and then worked as an associate with the D.C. firm of Covington & Burling. He teaches and writes in the areas of Property, Land Use, Constitutional Law, and Higher Education Law and Policy. He served as Associate Dean for the JD Program from 1997 to 2000. He was John Carroll Research Professor in 1996-97.
Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
ILYA SOMIN is Professor of Law at George Mason University and the B. Kenneth Simon Chair in Constitutional Studies at the Cato Institute. His research focuses on constitutional law, property law, democratic theory, federalism, and migration rights. He is the author of Free to Move: Foot Voting, Migration, and Political Freedom (Oxford University Press, revised and expanded edition, 2022), Democracy and Political Ignorance: Why Smaller Government is Smarter (Stanford University Press, revised and expanded second edition, 2016), and The Grasping Hand: Kelo v. City of New London and the Limits of Eminent Domain (University of Chicago Press, 2015, rev. paperback ed., 2016), coauthor of A Conspiracy Against Obamacare: The Volokh Conspiracy and the Health Care Case (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), and co-editor of Eminent Domain: A Comparative Perspective (Cambridge University Press, 2017). Democracy and Political Ignorance has been translated into Italian and Japanese.
Somin’s work has appeared in numerous scholarly journals, including the Yale Law Journal, Stanford Law Review, Northwestern University Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal, Critical Review, and others. Somin has also published articles in a variety of popular press outlets, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, CNN, NBC, The Atlantic, USA Today, Boston Globe, US News and World Report, South China Morning Post, National Law Journal and Reason. He has been quoted or interviewed by the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Time, Newsweek, The Economist, the Christian Science Monitor, the Financial Times, The Guardian, the Associated Press, CBS, MSNBC, NPR, BBC, Reuters, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Al Jazeera, and the Voice of America, among other media.
Somin’s writings have been cited in decisions by the United States Supreme Court, multiple state supreme courts and lower federal courts, and the Supreme Court of Israel. He is co-counsel for the plaintiffs in VOS Selections, Inc. v. Trump, a case challenging the constitutionality of President Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs. Somin has testified on the use of drones for targeted killing in the War on Terror before the US Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights. In 2009, he testified on property rights issues at the United States Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Somin writes regularly for the popular Volokh Conspiracy law and politics blog, now affiliated with Reason magazine (previously affiliated with the Washington Post from 2014 to 2017). From 2006 to 2013, he served as Co-Editor of the Supreme Court Economic Review, one of the country’s top-rated law and economics journals.
Somin has served as a visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He has also been a visiting professor or scholar at the Georgetown University Law Center, the University of Hamburg, Germany, the University of Torcuato Di Tella in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Uriel Reichman University in Israel, and Zhengzhou University in China. He is a University Affiliate of the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, and an affiliated faculty member of the George Mason University Institute for Immigration Research. Before joining the faculty at George Mason, Somin was the John M. Olin Fellow in Law at Northwestern University Law School in 2002-2003. In 2001-2002, he clerked for the Hon. Judge Jerry E. Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Professor Somin earned his B.A., Summa Cum Laude, at Amherst College, M.A. in Political Science from Harvard University, and J.D. from Yale Law School.
Socialism or Sensible Protections? Zoning, Rent Control, and the Roots of the Housing Crisis
From Zohran Mamdani's mayoral campaign promise to remake New York housing and California Governor Gavin...
Socialism or Sensible Protections? Zoning, Rent Control, and the Roots of the Housing Crisis
Ed Artau, James S. Burling, J. Peter Byrne, Ilya Somin, Sara Bronin
CLE credit for this event is available at On-Demand CLE. From Zohran Mamdani's mayoral campaign promise...
Socialism or Sensible Protections? Zoning, Rent Control, and the Roots of the Housing Crisis
Property Rights Practice Group
Washington, DCSocialism or Sensible Protections? Zoning, Rent Control, and the Roots of the Housing Crisis
Property Rights Practice Group
Washington, DCProposition 10: Rent Control in California
Stanford Student Chapter
Stanford, CAConservative & Libertarian Legal Scholarship: Property
[Return to Table of Contents] II. Property (See also Section XV on Intellectual Property) Foundational...