Time to Bury the Kafkaesque Process for Vindicating Property Rights

Property rights shouldn ’t be relegated to second-class status. Yet 30 years ago, in Williamson County Regional Planning Commission v. Hamilton Bank, the Supreme Court pronounced a new rule that a property owner must first sue in state court to ripen a federal takings claim. As illustrated by  Knick v. Township of Scott, this radical departure from historic practice has effectively shut property owners out of federal courts without any firm doctrinal justification.Rose Knick owns 90 acres in Scott Township in western Pennsylvania, a state known for its “backyard burials.” In 2012 a new ordinance required all “cemeteries” be open and accessible to the public during daylight hours. It also allowed government officials to enter private property to look for violations. In 2013, township officials entered Ms. Knick’s property without her perm ission and—after finding old stone markers on her property—cited her for violating the cemetery code. Fines are $300-600 per infraction per day.Ms. Knick took the township to court; the state court dismissed her claims as improperly “postured” because the township had not yet pursued civil enforcement to collect the fines. When she then turned to federal court, the district court dismissed her constitutional claims, citing Williamson County ’sstate-litigation requirement. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit affirmed this Kafkaesque process, but the Supreme Court agreed to further examine the case. Cato has...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs