Supreme Court Allows Property Rights Plaintiffs to Go Directly to Federal Court
From NAHB NOW
Highlights from the article: In a huge victory for NAHB and its members, the U.S. Supreme Court on June 21 reversed a long-standing land use decision that made it nearly impossible for property owners to bring a Fifth Amendment takings claim in federal court.
On June 21 in Knick v. Township of Scott, the Supreme Court ruled that “the state-litigation requirement [in Williamson] imposes an unjustifiable burden on takings plaintiffs, conflicts with the rest of [the Court’s] jurisprudence, and must be overruled. A property owner has an actionable Fifth Amendment takings claim when the government takes his property without paying for it.”
This means that rather than going through expensive and drawn-out state court proceedings, a land use plaintiff can bring a takings claim in federal court as soon as the taking occurs.