Here's the cert petition, recently filed, which asks the U.S. Supreme Court to review a decision of the North Carolina appellate courts. We say "appellate courts," because the decision being reviewed is one from the N.C. Court of Appeals, because the N.C. Supreme Court, after granting discretionary review, punted and dismissed the appeal after it was fully briefed and teed up for oral arguments.
What happened that cause the court to dismiss? Who really knows the internals, but the one thing we do know is that some members of the court changed due to a judicial election. We know the above because we were watching the case closely; we filed an amicus brief in support of the property owner in the N.C. Supreme Court, a brief that apparently didn't get read (not that amicus briefs get read all that frequently anyway, but you get our drift).
The case is a regulatory takings claim, and involves wet and dry sand beaches, public trust, and other favorite topics. The case arose because the N.C. Legislature by statute moved the "public trust" shoreline landward, and allowed the public to use what had formerly been private beach.
Here's the Question Presented:
Whether the Takings Clause permits a state to statutorily redefine an entire coastline of privately owned dry beach parcels as a “public trust” area open for public use, without just compensation?
We're going to follow this case, closely. Will we be also filing an amicus brief to make up for our (unread) N.C. Supreme Court amicus?
Maybe, maybe.
Petition for Writ of Certiorari, Nies v. Town of Emerald Isle, No 16-____ (U.S. Apr. 27, 2017)
