Law Commons^™

The Florida Beach Case And The Road To Judicial Takings, Michael C. Blumm, Elizabeth B. Dawson

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

In Stop the Beach Renourishment v. Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld a state beach restoration project against landowner claims of an unconstitutional taking of the property. This result was not nearly as surprising as the fact that the Court granted certiorari on a case that turned on an obscure aspect of Florida property law: whether landowners adjacent to a beach had the rights to future accretions of sand and to maintain contact with the water.

The Court’s curious interest in the case was piqued by the landowners’ recasting the case from the regulatory taking …