June 28th, 2019 — By — In News & Events
Changes Ahead For Property Owners: After More Than 30 Years, Supreme Court Reopens Federal Courthouse Door To Property Rights Claims
OCA Member Robert Thomas seeks to alert all property owners in his recent posting on the impact of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent landmark decision in Knick v. Township of Scott:
Heads up, property owners: last week the U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling changing
the way property rights lawsuits have been handled for the last thirty years. In Knick v. Township of
Scott, the Court allowed property owners who sue to enforce their federal right to compensation because a municipal government has taken their property in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s Fifth Amendment by overregulating its use, to bring the lawsuit in federal court.
You might reasonably ask: how could it be that since 1985, property owners who alleged a federalconstitutional violation were barred from suing in federal court? Well, the lawyers in our firm’s Land Use Practice Group who represent property owners in these type of cases had long asked the very same question. The details of why the Supreme Court—in the case Williamson County Regional Planning Commission v. Hamilton Bank (1985)—had barred federal takings plaintiffs from federal court are not terribly important, and it is sufficient to understand that until Knick, these kind of claims had to be raised exclusively in state court. No other federal constitutional right was subject to this requirement, only federal property rights. Williamson County assigned to state judges and state courts the exclusive responsibility for enforcing the federal constitutional right to own and use private property. In Knick, the Supreme Court revisited theWilliamson County prohibition on federal court, and overruled it. (Read More)
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