Remember Brott v. United States, the case we last posted about here ("New Cert Petition: Property Owners Entitled To Jury & Article III Judge In Federal Inverse Cases")? The Question Presented in that case is whether "the federal government take private property and deny the owner the ability to vindicate his constitutional right to be justly compensated in an Article III Court with trial by jury?"
Well, here's another, recently-filed cert petition which asks at least one of the same questions:
1. Whether the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment is a self-executing waiver of sovereign immunity, therefore vesting review of federal takings suits in Article III courts.2. Whether Congress violates Article III of the Constitution to the extent Congress forces plaintiffs with federal takings suits over $10,000 to litigate these suits before the Article I judges of the United States Court of Federal Claims.
Sammons v. United States, No. 17-795 (cert. petition filed Nov. 28, 2017).
Both this case and Brott ask a fundamental question: is the Fifth Amendment's Just Compensation requirement self-executing? And if so, what does this mean?
Does it mean, as the Sixth Circuit held in Brott that although the requirement to pay compensation when property has been taken springs from the Constitution itself, that Congress can limit where and how the federal government gets sued? Or does it mean, as the property owners here and in Brott argue, that there is no immunity for Congress to waive, and thus it cannot limit a property owner's forum and preclude consideration of the case by an Article III judge (and jury, in Brott).
Between these cases and the patent case recently argued (Oil States), and others working their way up the food chain, the question of what forum litigants may be entitled to to resolve their property claims seems like it is coming to a head.
Here's the Court's docket for the Sammons case (which now has links to the filed documents). Stay tuned.
Petition for a Writ of Certiorari, Sammons v. United States, No. 17-795 (Nov. 28, 2018)
