Here are the respondents’ merits briefs in the beachfront taking case, Stop the Beachfront Renourishment, Inc. v. Florida Dep’t of Environmental Protection, No. 08-11 (cert. granted. June 15, 2009):
In Walton County v. Stop the Beach Renourishment, Inc.,998So.2d 1102 (Fla. Sep. 29, 2008), the Florida Supreme Court heldthat a state statute which prohibits “beach renourishment” without apermit did not effect a taking of littoral (beachfront) property, eventhough it altered the long-standing rights of the owners to accretionon their land and direct access to the ocean. The U.S. Supreme Court isconsidering whether the Florida court’s reversal of more than 100 yearsof Florida law was a judicial taking, and whether the Florida court’sdecision violated due process.
We filed an amicus brief supporting the property owners, which is available here. The property owners’ merits brief is available here. The other amici briefs supporting the property owners are posted here, here, and here. All briefs and more about the case on our resource page and in this report from the Destin Log (the hometown newpaper).
Oral arguments in the Supreme Court are set for December 2, 2009.
Sidebar: here’s a shout-out to Dwight Merriam – this should settle the question of whether I have been cloned, and prove that I indeed do the posting here at inversecondemnation.com: shoot, move and communicate! (we’re in Austin this week for the ABA’s fall meeting). Dwight, if you read this before the morning session, let me know and I will send you a pound of Kona coffee, straight from the farms.