It’s always a safe bet to predict that the Supreme Court will deny review in a case, and if that’s what you had guessed for Kurtz v. Verizon New York, Inc., No. 14-439 (cert. petition filed Oct. 14, 2014), today’s order list would prove you right.
That’s the case in which the Second Circuit threw out a complaint on Williamson County ripeness grounds, which, were the claim a takings claim, isn’t all that certworthy. The odd thing was, the court concluded that a procedural due process claim was not ripe under Williamson County‘s exhaustion of state remedies prong. Say what?
We submitted an amicus brief in the case, because the Second Circuit’s ripeness mission creep wasn’t warranted: Williamson County‘s rationale, is built on a takings-specific rationale and has no application to a due process claim, and our brief called for the Court to both reverse the Second Circuit, and to expressly overrule Williamson County. Here are the other amicus briefs in the case, as well as the cert petition (by the good folks at IJ).
We were hoping for a more positive outcome today (and at least two takings-type cases on the Court’s docket this term). Alas, Kurtz isn’t “the one.”