Supreme Court will hear oral argument in Florida beach takings case

On Wednesday, December 2, 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Stop the Beach Renourishment, Inc. v. Florida Dep’t of Environmental Protection, et al. For background on the case see our previous posts here and here as well as the case resource page on inversecondemnation.com by OCA Hawaii Member, Robert Thomas.

This is the first major property rights case to reach the Court since Justice Sonia Sotomayor has joined the bench and, some may argue, since the Court’s controversial decision in Kelo v. City of New London, in which the Court upheld the taking of private property for the purpose of giving that land to Pfizer for a the development of its corporate headquarters was a “public purpose” under the 5th Amendment. [It is important to note that Pfizer has not only abandoned the plan to construct the company’s headquarters in New London but also recently announced that it will be pulling 1,400 jobs out of the City and closing it’s current operations based there as a cost cutting measure. See NY Times Nov. 13, 2009 article here.]

Links to the merits briefs as well as amicus briefs are available on the American Bar Association’s website here (disclosure: Owners’ Counsel of America submitted an amicus brief on behalf of the property owners). Additionally, the Court will hear directly from the Solicitor General tomorrow as the SG’s motion for leave to participate in oral arguments as amicus for the State of Florida was granted by the Court in October.

For recent news articles concerning the case and additional commentary see:
Washington Post (November 24, 2009)
The CATO Institute (December 1,2009 – daily podcast with Ilya Shapiro)

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