A Florida case with national implications
Author: Timothy Sandefur
The Tampa Tribune today featured my article (coauthored with Steve Geiseler) on the Florida beach renourishment case:
America's Constitution requires states to pay "just compensation" when they take private property for the use of the public. But what if a state's judges simply declare that a person's ownership of property never existed in the first place? Is the person still entitled to just compensation – or can the state escape its duty to pay by mere say-so?
That's the question the U.S. Supreme Court will consider today when it hears a Florida property rights case with national implications. A group of beachfront homeowners from Destin are asking the justices to reverse a decision by Florida's highest court that erased legal protections that beach owners in Florida have relied on for almost a century