Here are the final cert-stage briefs in a case we've been following for what seems to be a long time.
We say that because we represented the property owner the last time it was up before SCOTUS, when we came tantalizingly close to making the cut.
After the Court denied review, the property owner sued the Commission in federal court, asserting that being undercompensated in state court was itself a violation of the U.S. Constitution.
The district court dismissed the case, followed by the Fifth Circuit affirming in Bay Point Properties, Inc. v. Mississippi Trans. Comm'n, 937 F.3d 454 (5th Cir. 2019). The Fifth Circuit held that a property owner who asserted that it was not fully compensated in state court inverse condemnation case, could not then sue the state DOT in federal court for the difference. The reason wasn't based on the substance of the allegations, but on Eleventh Amendment immunity. A footnote in the Fifth Circuit's opinion presaged the cert petition, effectively booting the case upstairs to SCOTUS. And here we are now.
The Petition presents this straightforward question:
Whether the “self-executing” Just Compensation Clause abrogates a State’s Eleventh Amendment immunity, allowing a property owner to sue the State for a taking of property.The Commission filed a Brief in Opposition last month, and the property owners have now replied.
So we're done with the briefing, and all we need do now is wait for the conference, and the results.
This is a fascinating issue, and a case we all should be following. Stay tuned.
Brief in Opposition, Bay Point Props., Inc. v. Mississippi Trans. Comm'n, No. 19-798 (Feb. 20, 2020)
