Takings Clause Challenge to Florida's Approval of Beach Restoration Permits Rejected

Stop the Beach Renourishment, Inc. v. Fla. Dept. of Env. Protection, Inc., No. 08-1151, involved an action challenging the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's approval of permits to restore a portion of beach eroded by several hurricanes.  The Court affirmed the Florida Supreme Court's holding that the approval of the permits did not unconstitutionally deprive plaintiffs of littoral rights without just compensation, on the ground that there could be no taking unless petitioner could show that, before the Florida Supreme Court's decision, littoral property owners had rights to future accretions and to contact with the water superior to the State's right to fill in its submerged land.

As the Court wrote:  "We consider a claim that the decision of a State's court of last resort took property without just compensation inviolation of the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment, as applied against the States through the Fourteenth, see Dolan v. City of Tigard, 512 U. S. 374, 383-384 (1994)."

Related Resources

• Full Text of Stop the Beach Renourishment, Inc. v. Fla. Dept. of Env. Protection, Inc., No. 08-1151