Where this was said
Chance Weldon: The Lawyer Who Sues the Government for a Living
At 11:09 · chapter starts 11:00
Enter Chance Weldon, litigation director at the Texas Public Policy Foundation — a free-market think tank based in Austin. Chance describes his job, cheerfully, as suing the government for a living. His passion for property rights has a personal root: he grew up as a renter, where he couldn't build a treehouse or change the yard without asking the landlord's permission. To him, the line between owning and renting is the right not to ask. When he sees cities acting like landlords — telling property owners what they can do on their own land — his alarm bells ring. He had been watching tree ordinances spread across the country and believed they crossed a constitutional line. When Canton's case makes the local news in 2018, Chance reaches out and offers to represent the property owners pro bono.
The Fifth Amendment's Takings Clause prohibits the government from taking private property without just compensation. Courts have ruled that over-regulation can amount to a 'regulatory taking' — and Chance Weldon argued that forcing a homeowner to keep an unwanted tree is exactly that.
