U.S. Supreme Court Seems Prepared to Return Major Takings Case to State Court

Kevin King’s commentary was included in a Daily Journal article speculating on how the U.S. Supreme Court might rule on George Sheetz v. County of El Dorado, California. Kevin provided his insight on how the court might rule and what issues are at play in the case.

At issue is whether a monetary exaction imposed by a local government as a condition for a building permit exempt from the “essential nexus” and “rough proportionality” requirements established in Nollan v. Cal. Coastal Comm’n and Dolan v. City of Tigard, simply because the exaction is authorized by local legislation?

“The oral argument suggests that the court may issue a narrow ruling,” Kevin said. “Beyond the threshold question whether legislation is exempt, the justices seem to have disagreements on important downstream issues, including which sorts of laws might be subject to Nollan/Dolan scrutiny and how that scrutiny would work in practice.”

Kevin also indicated there could be a narrow but near-unanimous ruling for Sheetz on whether legislative action protected the supervisors' adoption of the fee while other issues were punted back to the state appellate court.