Here's the amici brief filed earlier this week in Sammons v. United States, No. 17-795, a case we've been following. Here's the cert petition.
The issue in this case is the same as in two cases already pending in the Supreme Court, the first a patent case argued in December, and the other a rails-to-trails case in which the cert petition is pending (we filed an amicus brief in the latter case).
Now, we've joined a brief in Sammons which argues that like these two cases, this one presents the same issues:
This petition for certiorari concerns essentially the same issues raised in Oil States and Brott.
In Oil States this Court will decide whether an adjudication before an Article I tribunal “violates the Constitution by extinguishing private property rights through a non-Article III forum without a jury.” In Oil States a non-Article III board invalidated an owner’s property interest in a patent.
Similarly, Brott asks, “[c]an 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?” In Brott Michigan landowners sued the federal government seeking compensation for land the government took for a public recreational trail in violation of the Fifth Amendment’s Just Compensation Clause.
As in Brott, this petition for certiorari asks this Court to decide whether Congress may take private property and deny the property owner the ability to vindicate his right to just compensation in an Article III court with trial by jury. Sammons alleges a Winstar taking of his property interest in federally-regulated financial institutions.
As the Petitioner explains, the lower courts are split on these questions and have applied this Court’s decisions in a disparate manner. This Court should grant certiorari to resolve these important questions and reconcile the disparity among the circuits. Alternatively, this Court should grant the petition for certiorari, vacate the Fifth Circuit’s underlying decision and remand this matter in light of this Court’s decisions in Oil States and Brott.
Our thanks to Thor Hearne and his Federal Takings team for undertaking the lion's share of the work on this brief.
Stay tuned. If the government files a brief in opposition, we'll post it here. Or, follow along on the Court's docket here.
Brief for Owners' Counsel of America, Southeastern Legal Foundation, NARPO, and Professors Shelley Ross Sax...
