On November 16, 2007, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy filed a brief of amicus curiae with the Michigan Supreme Court in the case of Michigan Department of Transportation v Tomkins. The legal dispute involves the amount of compensation a property owner should receive from state government when the state uses eminent domain to take part of the owner’s property. Specifically, the Michigan Supreme Court asked whether a state law that limits the property owner’s compensation to so-called "special-effect" damages violates the common understanding of the "just compensation" guaranteed in eminent domain cases by the Michigan Constitution.

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Contents

• 1. Relevant law and constitutional provisions
  
  
• 2. The common-understanding doctrine and takings
  
  
• 3. Spiek and highway effects
  
  
• 4. The instant case at the Court of Appeals
  
  
• 5. Common-understanding factors
  
  
• a. Justice Cooley’s scholarly writings
  
  
• b. Michigan case law
  
  
• c. Constitutional convention activity
  
  
• d. Federal case law