Knick v. Township of Scott, Pennsylvania
| Knick v. Township of Scott, Pennsylvania | |
|---|---|
| Argued October 3, 2018 Reargued January 16, 2019 Decided June 21, 2019 | |
| Full case name | Rose Mary Knick v. Township of Scott, Pennsylvania, et al. |
| Docket no. | 17-647 |
| Citations | 588 U.S. (more) 139 S. Ct. 2162; 204 L. Ed. 2d 558 |
| Case history | |
| Prior | Motion to dismiss granted, No. 3:14-CV-02223, 2016 WL 4701549 (M.D. Pa. Sept. 07, 2016); affirmed, 862 F.3d 310 (3d Cir. 2017); cert. granted, 138 S. Ct. 1262 (2018). |
| Holding | |
| A government violates the Takings Clause when it takes property without compensation, and a property owner may then bring a Fifth Amendment claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983; the state-litigation requirement of Williamson County Regional Planning Commission v. Hamilton Bank of Johnson City, is overruled. | |
| Court membership | |
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| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Roberts, joined by Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh |
| Concurrence | Thomas |
| Dissent | Kagan, joined by Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor |
| Laws applied | |
| U.S. Const. amend. V | |
This case overturned a previous ruling or rulings | |
| Williamson County Regional Planning Commission v. Hamilton Bank of Johnson City (1985) (in part) | |
Knick v. Township of Scott, Pennsylvania, No. 17-647, 588 U.S. ___ (2019), was a case before the Supreme Court of the United States dealing with compensation for private property owners when the use of that property is taken from them by state or local governments, under the Due Process Clause and the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The immediate question asks if private land owners must exhaust all state-offered venues for mediation before seeking action in the federal courts. The case specifically addresses the Court's prior decision from the 1985 case Williamson County Regional Planning Commission v. Hamilton Bank of Johnson City, which had previously established that all state court venues must be exhausted first, but which has since resulted in several split decisions among circuit courts. The Supreme Court ruled in June 2019 to overturn part of Williamson County that required state venue action be taken first, allowing taking-compensation cases to be brought directly to federal court.