◼ The Pacific Legal Foundation just won an important property rights case - Katy Grimes/Cal WatchDog
The U.S. Supreme Court case expanded the right to just compensation to “non-takings” of property in Koontz v. St. Johns River Management District.
Paul Beard, the PLF attorney who litigated the Koontz case, said the decision is important for property owners because no longer will the government be able to force them to apply for permits to pay money to the government without constitutional scrutiny on the reason for the extortion.
Until now, permitting agencies have been able to demand money for land use permits without showing just cause.
“The ruling says the Fifth Amendment protects landowners from government extortion, whether the extortion is for money or any other form of property,” Beard told me in an interview. “The Supreme Court said limits imposed by the St. Johns River Water Management District on how Koontz used his land were a ‘taking’ subject to compensation under the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
“The court has recognized that money is a form of property, and the Constitution prohibits grabbing money from property owners the same way it prohibits grabbing land without compensation.”
The left reacts
“The decision is a very serious loss for local governments,” said John Echeverria, a Vermont Law School professor specializing in land use and property rights, who filed a brief for state and local government associations on St. Johns’ behalf, as quoted by Reuters.
“It means requirements to pay fees or other payments as a condition of permit approvals will be subject to heightened scrutiny. That is a revolutionary change in the law.”
Siding with government power against private property, in dissent were the four most liberal justices: Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Steven Breyer, Sondra Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. Wrote Kagan in the dissent,“The boundaries of the majority’s new rule are uncertain, but it threatens to subject a vast array of land-use regulations, applied daily in states and localities throughout the country, to heightened constitutional scrutiny.”
