Professor Reynolds discusses off-planet property rights.

Hmmm. I suspect it will come down to "You and what fleet of space ships?" And it's not anything to waste oxygen over just yet.

Since reading Restoring the Lost Constitution : The Presumption of Liberty I see nails everywhere that required pounding with the 9th amendment hammer. The government has absolutely no right to interfere with an assertion of property interest other than to establish order in the dispute of claims. The property exists and people are going to claim it.

Aleta, in my mind, is absolutely right that the physical defense of property is one means of making the assertion.

When I first read that the judged said, "...failed to assert a cognizable cause of action." I wondered what the judge was trying to say... is it that he can't think of a reason when Nemitz outlined several? Then I looked up the legal definition of cognizable: Able to be tried before a particular court, which suggests either the judge didn't think he had jurisdiction or felt he wasn't competent to make a judgement.

I wish I could hang around long enough to see how this new wild and wooly west turns out, but it's probably going to be another 100 years before things get really interesting.