U.S. Supreme Court will not review Wisconsin VFW eminent domain case

Following last week’s conference, the U.S. Supreme Court this morning issued an order denying certiorari review in City of Milwaukee Post No. 2874 Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States v. Redevelopment Agency of the City of Milwaukee, No. 09-1204 (cert. petition filed Apr. 2, 2010) SCOTUS online docket here.

The Petition for Certiorari challenged the constitutionality of the “undivided fee rule” (a.k.a. “unit rule”) as applied by the Wisconsin Supreme Court in this eminent domain case. The Wisconsin Supreme Court, applying the undivided fee rule, found that the VFW’s long-term lease had no value itself as the property upon which the lease was based was worth nothing after the cost of asbestos abatement and demolition were subtracted from the fair market value attributed to it. The unit rule in this case prohibited the VFW from receiving just compensation for what many would argue was a very valuable long-term leasehold interest.

For more on this case see our previous posts here, here and here.

[Disclosure: The Petition for Certiorari in this case was filed by OCA Members Michael Berger and Gideon Kanner and an Amici Brief in support of the petition was filed by OCA Member Robert Thomas.]

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