KAPO’s cert petition is catching attention

Earlier this year, PLF filed a petition for a writ certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court in the case, Kitsap Alliance for Property Owners v. Central Puget Sound Growth Management Hearings Board.  The petition asks the Court to review a Washington appellate decision holding that a county can force landowners to dedicate large tracts of private property to public use, without providing just compensation, so long as the county can show that its use of the land will provide the public with an environmental benefit. A post I wrote detailing the petition can be found here.

Our petition did not go unnoticed.  We received amicus support from Citizens’ Alliance for Property Rights and the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence.

The government respondents chose the strategy of not responding to our petition, publically decrying our petition as frivolous.  (That, of course, must be taken with a grain of salt, given the fact that KAPO won multiple issues throughout this 6-year appeal).

Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an order requesting that the government file a response to KAPO’s petition.  We are very pleased that the important questions raised in this case will be considered on their merits.