Respondents Brief — Bridge Aina Le'a, LLC, Petitioner v. Hawaii Land Use Commission
Supreme Court briefNov 25, 2020
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No. 20-54
IN THE
Supreme Court of the United States
_________
BRIDGE AINA LE‘A, LLC,
v.
Petitioner,
STATE OF HAWAII LAND USE COMMISSION,
Respondent.
_________
On Petition for a Writ of Certiorari to the
United States Court of Appeals
for the Ninth Circuit
_________
BRIEF IN OPPOSITION
_________
CLARE E. CONNORS
Attorney General
KIMBERLY T. GUIDRY
Solicitor General
EWAN C. RAYNER
Deputy Solicitor
General
WILLIAM J. WYNHOFF
DAVID D. DAY
Deputy Attorneys
General
STATE OF HAWAII
DEPARTMENT OF THE
ATTORNEY GENERAL
425 Queen Street
Honolulu, HI 96813
NEAL KUMAR KATYAL
Counsel of Record
MITCHELL P. REICH
DANIELLE DESAULNIERS
STEMPEL
HOGAN LOVELLS US LLP
555 Thirteenth St., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20004
(202) 637-5600
neal.katyal@hoganlovells.com
Counsel for Respondent
QUESTIONS PRESENTED
1. Whether the Ninth Circuit correctly held that
Petitioner did not suffer a taking where the State
rezoned Petitioner’s property because Petitioner
repeatedly agreed to and failed to satisfy conditions
precedent to its existing classification, and where the
property retained additional economically productive
uses and most of its economic value after the rezoning.
2. Whether this Court should overrule Penn Central Transportation Co. v. City of New York, 438 U.S.
104 (1978)—a 42-year-old precedent it has repeatedly reaffirmed—in a record-intensive case where
Petitioner is eligible only for nominal damages and
despite Petitioner’s failure to propose any alternative
test.
3. Whether the panel correctly held that, on the
facts of this case, the State was entitled to judgment
as a matter of law.
(i)
ii
PARTIES TO THE PROCEEDING
Bridge Aina Le‘a, LLC, petitioner on review, was
the plaintiff-appellant and cross-appellee below.
The State of Hawaii Land Use Commission is respondent on review.
The State of Hawaii Land Use Commission, Vladimir P. Devens, Kyle Chock, Normand Robert Lezy,
Duane Kanuha, Charles Jencks, Lisa M. Judge, and
Nicholas W. Teves, Jr. were the defendants-appellees
and cross-appellants below.
iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
QUESTIONS PRESENTED ........................................ i
PARTIES TO THE PROCEEDING ............................ii
TABLE OF AUTHORITIES ....................................... iv
INTRODUCTION ........................................................ 1
STATEMENT .............................................................. 4
A.
Factual Background ................................. 4
B.
Procedural History ................................... 7
REASONS FOR DENYING THE PETITION .......... 12
I.
II.
CERTIORARI IS UNWARRANTED TO
REVIEW THE PANEL’S APPLICATION
OF LUCAS AND PENN CENTRAL .............. 12
A.
The Ninth Circuit Correctly Held
that Lucas Requires A Complete
Loss ......................................................... 13
B.
Certiorari Is Not Warranted To
Determine Whether A Categorical
Taking Turns On Loss of Use or Loss
of Value ................................................... 17
C.
This Court Should Not Grant Certiorari To “Clari[fy]” That “Temporary”
Takings Are Actionable .......................... 23
CERTIORARI IS UNWARRANTED TO
RECONSIDER PENN CENTRAL ................. 26
III. CERTIORARI IS UNWARRANTED TO
REVIEW THE PANEL’S FACT-BOUND
DECISIONS CONCERNING THE
RECORD ......................................................... 32
CONCLUSION .......................................................... 35
iv
TABLE OF AUTHORITIES
Page(s)
CASES:
1256 Hertel Ave. Assocs., LLC v. Calloway,
761 F.3d 252 (2d Cir. 2014) ................................. 15
Appolo Fuels, Inc. v. United States,
381 F.3d 1338 (Fed. Cir. 2004) ...................... 14, 18
Arkansas Game & Fish Comm’n v. United
States,
568 U.S. 23 (2012) ................................................ 30
Ass’n of New Jersey Rifle & Pistol Clubs,
Inc. v. Attorney Gen. New Jersey,
910 F.3d 106 (3d Cir. 2018) ................................. 15
Caquelin v. United States,
959 F.3d 1360 (Fed. Cir. 2020) ...................... 24, 25
Caruso v. Zoning Bd. of Appeals of City of
Meriden,
130 A.3d 241 (Conn. 2016) ................................... 19
CCA Assocs. v. United States,
667 F.3d 1239 (Fed. Cir. 2011) ............................ 28
City of Monterey v. Del Monte Dunes at
Monterey, Ltd.,
526 U.S. 687 (1999) .............................................. 32
Colony Cove Props., LLC v. City of Carson,
888 F.3d 445 (9th Cir. 2018), cert. denied,
139 S. Ct. 917 (2019) ............................................ 28
Columbia Venture, LLC v. Richland County,
776 S.E.2d 900 (S.C. 2015) .................................. 15
Cooley v. United States,
324 F.3d 1297 (Fed. Cir. 2003) ...................... 14, 15
v
TABLE OF AUTHORITIES—Continued
Page(s)
Dist. Intown Props. Ltd. P’ship v. District of
Columbia,
198 F.3d 874 (D.C. Cir. 1999) ........................ 15, 19
DW Aina Le‘a Dev., LLC v. Bridge Aina
Le‘a, LLC.,
339 P.3d 685 (Haw. 2014) .................................. 6, 7
DW Aina Le‘a Dev., LLC v. State of Hawai‘i
Land Use Comm’n,
918 F.3d 602 (9th Cir. 2019) .................................. 7
First English Evangelical Lutheran Church
of Glendale v. Los Angeles County,
482 U.S. 304 (1987) .......................................... 3, 25
Franchise Tax Bd. of California v. Hyatt,
139 S. Ct. 1485 (2019) .......................................... 29
Front Royal & Warren Cty. Indus. Park
Corp. v. Town of Front Royal,
135 F.3d 275 (4th Cir. 1998) ................................ 15
Goldbatt v. Town of Hempstead,
369 U.S. 590 (1962) .............................................. 30
Good v. United States,
189 F.3d 1355 (Fed. Cir. 1999) ............................ 27
Hawkeye Commodity Promotions, Inc. v.
Vilsack,
486 F.3d 430 (8th Cir. 2007) .......................... 15, 19
Henry v. Jefferson Cty. Comm’n,
637 F.3d 269 (4th Cir. 2011) ................................ 19
Hodel v. Irving,
481 U.S. 704 (1987) .............................................. 30
Kavanau v. Santa Monica Rent Control Bd.,
941 P.2d 851 (Cal. 1997) ...................................... 15
vi
TABLE OF AUTHORITIES—Continued
Page(s)
Kimble v. Marvel Entm’t, LLC,
576 U.S. 446 (2015) .............................................. 29
Kirby Forest Indus., Inc. v. United States,
467 U.S. 1 (1984) .................................................. 16
Lingle v. Chevron U.S.A. Inc.,
544 U.S. 528 (2005) .................................. 12, 21, 30
Lost Tree Village Corp. v. United States,
787 F.3d 1111 (Fed. Cir. 2015) ...................... 18, 19
Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council,
505 U.S. 1003 (1992) .................................... passim
MacDonald, Sommer & Frates v. Yolo
County,
477 U.S. 340 (1986) .............................................. 30
Machipongo Land & Coal Co. v.
Commonwealth,
799 A.2d 751 (Pa. 2002) ....................................... 15
McAndrews v. Fleet Bank of
Massachusetts, N.A.,
989 F.2d 13 (1st Cir. 1993) .................................. 15
Murr v. Wisconsin,
137 S. Ct. 1933 (2017) .................................. passim
Muscarello v. Ogle Cty. Bd. of Comm’rs,
610 F.3d 416 (7th Cir. 2010) ................................ 15
Neely v. Martin K. Eby Constr. Co.,
386 U.S. 317 (1967) .............................................. 32
New Port Largo, Inc. v. Monroe County,
95 F.3d 1084 (11th Cir. 1996) .............................. 15
Palazzolo v. Rhode Island,
533 U.S. 606, 617 (2001) .............................. passim
vii
TABLE OF AUTHORITIES—Continued
Page(s)
Palm Beach Isles Assocs. v. United States,
231 F.3d 1354 (Fed. Cir. 2000) ............................ 18
Penn Central Transportation Co. v. City of
New York,
438 U.S. 104 (1978) ...................................... passim
Pennsylvania Coal Co. v. Mahon,
260 U.S. 393 (1922) ........................................ 12, 30
Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Prods., Inc.,
530 U.S. 133 (2000) .............................................. 33
SDDS, Inc. v. State,
650 N.W.2d 1 (S.D. 2002)..................................... 19
State ex rel. Shemo v. City of Mayfield
Heights,
775 N.E.2d 493 (Ohio 2002) ................................. 19
Strickland v. Washington,
466 U.S. 668 (1984) .............................................. 31
Tahoe-Sierra Pres. Council, Inc. v. Tahoe
Reg’l Planning Agency,
535 U.S. 302 (2002) ...................................... passim
Tennessee Scrap Recyclers Ass’n v. Bredesen,
556 F.3d 442 (6th Cir. 2009) ................................ 15
Terry v. Ohio,
392 U.S. 1 (1968) .................................................. 31
United States v. Fuller,
453 F.3d 274 (5th Cir. 2006) ................................ 15
United States v. Riverside Bayview Homes,
Inc.,
474 U.S. 121 (1985) .............................................. 32
viii
TABLE OF AUTHORITIES—Continued
Page(s)
Weisgram v. Marley Co.,
528 U.S. 440 (2000) .............................................. 32
Wheeler v. City of Pleasant Grove,
833 F.2d 267 (11th Cir. 1987) .............................. 16
CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISION:
U.S. Const. amend. V ......................................... 2, 12
STATUTES:
Haw. Rev. Stat. § 205-2(a) ........................................ 4
Haw. Rev. Stat. § 205-2(d)........................................ 4
Haw. Rev. Stat. § 205-4(a) ........................................ 4
Haw. Rev. Stat. § 205-6(a) .............................. 4, 8, 22
RULE:
Sup. Ct. R. 10 ............................................................ 3
OTHER AUTHORITIES:
Michael M. Berger, They Found the Quark–
Why Not a Takings Formula?, 47 Land
Use L. & Zoning Dig. 3 (1995) ............................ 28
Susan D. Carle, A Social Movement History
of Title VII Disparate Impact Analysis, 63
Fla. L. Rev. 251 (2011) ........................................ 31
John D. Echeverria, Making Sense of Penn
Central, 23 UCLA J. Envt’l L. & Pol’y 171
(2005) ................................................................... 32
Lise Johnson, Note, After Tahoe Sierra, One
Thing Is Clearer: There Is Still A Fundamental Lack of Clarity, 46 Ariz. L. Rev.
353 (2004) ............................................................ 28
ix
TABLE OF AUTHORITIES—Continued
Page(s)
Ann T. Kadlecek, Note, The Effect of Lucas
v. South Carolina Coastal Council on the
Law of Regulatory Takings, 68 Wash. L.
Rev. 415 (1993) .................................................... 20
Kenneth Miller, Penn Central for Tomorrow: Making Regulatory Takings Predictable, 39 ELR 10457 (2009) .................................... 28
Stephen F. Smith, The Supreme Court and
the Politics of Death, 94 Va. L. Rev. 283
(2008) ................................................................... 31
IN THE
Supreme Court of the United States
_________
No. 20-54
_________
BRIDGE AINA LE‘A, LLC,
v.
Petitioner,
STATE OF HAWAII LAND USE COMMISSION,
Respondent.
_________
On Petition for a Writ of Certiorari to the
United States Court of Appeals
for the Ninth Circuit
_________
BRIEF IN OPPOSITION
_________
INTRODUCTION
Petitioner Bridge Aina Le‘a, LLC (“Bridge”) asks
this Court to review the Ninth Circuit’s application
of settled takings law—or, failing that, to jettison
this Court’s takings precedents altogether. But
Bridge identifies no cert-worthy issue arising under
existing law; indeed, many of the issues it identifies
are not implicated by this case, most are purely factbound, and none presents a circuit split. And even if
this Court wished to revisit Penn Central Transportation Co. v. City of New York, 438 U.S. 104 (1978)—
a landmark, 42-year old precedent—this case would
be an exceptionally poor vehicle to do so.
(1)
2
The Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause prohibits
the taking of “private property * * * for public use,
without just compensation.” U.S. Const. amend. V.
More than forty years ago, this Court in Penn Central identified three factors to guide courts in assessing whether a government regulation rises to the
level of an unconstitutional taking: (1) the regulation’s economic impact on the claimant; (2) the extent
to which it interferes with investment-backed expectations; and (3) the character of the governmental
action. 438 U.S. at 124. Fifteen years later, the
Court clarified in Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal
Council that “where [a] regulation denies all economically beneficial or productive use of land,” it constitutes a “categorical” taking. 505 U.S. 1003, 1015
(1992) (emphasis added). In the decades since, this
Court has consistently reiterated these twin standards, explaining that the hallmark of Lucas is its
bright-line total loss requirement, and the hallmark
of Penn Central is its flexibility. See, e.g., Murr v.
Wisconsin, 137 S. Ct. 1933, 1942-43 (2017).
This case concerns Bridge’s claim that the State of
Hawaii effected an unconstitutional regulatory
taking when, after Bridge’s repeated failure to abide
by its promises to use its land to construct habitable
residences for low-income residents, the State reverted a portion of Bridge’s land from urban to
agricultural use. Faithfully applying this Court’s
standards, the Ninth Circuit held that Bridge did not
suffer a taking under either Lucas or Penn Central.
Bridge takes issue with this decision on several
fronts, but none warrants this Court’s review.
First, there is no need to reconsider the panel’s
fact-bound (and correct) application of Lucas and
Penn Central. The Ninth Circuit properly held that
3
Lucas requires a complete loss, and that Bridge
failed to satisfy that standard because the land
retained both more than de minimis value and the
potential for economically beneficial uses. It likewise
rejected Bridge’s Penn Central claim, finding that the
State’s order did not have a sufficient economic
impact and did not interfere with Bridge’s reasonable
investment-backed expectations.
Petitioner has
failed to identify any flaws in those holdings, let
alone a circuit split or other “compelling reason[ ]”
that would warrant this Court’s review. See Sup. Ct.
R. 10. Nor is there any need to clarify the law about
temporary takings; nothing in the decision below
undermines this Court’s holding that temporary
deprivations are compensable under the Takings
Clause. See First English Evangelical Lutheran
Church of Glendale v. Los Angeles County, 482 U.S.
304, 318 (1987).
Second, certiorari is not warranted to reconsider
the three-factor Penn Central framework, which this
Court has time and again endorsed. Petitioner does
not even attempt to demonstrate that any of the
usual stare decisis factors warrant overturning this
seminal precedent. Rather, its argument boils down
to the idea that this test must be flawed because
plaintiffs do not typically win their takings claims.
That argument is as meritless as it sounds. And this
case would be an exceptionally poor vehicle to revisit
Penn Central in any event, including because the
Ninth Circuit found that Petitioner’s argument failed
at multiple steps, and because Bridge does not
articulate any alternative test to replace Penn Central—let alone one under which it would prevail.
Third, certiorari is unwarranted to review the
Ninth Circuit’s application of the standard for judg-
4
ment as a matter of law to the facts of this case.
Bridge does not even purport to identify any circuit
split on this question. And reexamining this wholly
fact-bound issue is not an appropriate use of this
Court’s certiorari jurisdiction.
The petition for certiorari should be denied.
STATEMENT
A. Factual Background
1. Hawaii has four major land use classifications:
urban, rural, agricultural, and conservation. Haw.
Rev. Stat. § 205-2(a). Land zoned for agricultural
use may be developed for various purposes, including
farming, aquaculture, geothermal resources development, and wind and solar farms. Id. § 205-2(d). A
landowner may petition the Land Use Commission
(the “Commission”) to allow her to use agricultural
land for other “unusual and reasonable uses.” Id.
§ 205-6(a). A landowner may also petition the Commission to reclassify land from one category to another. See id. § 205-4(a).
This case involves 1,060 acres of a 3,000 acre parcel
of land located on the island of Hawaii. For over
forty years, the 1,060 acre parcel was zoned for
agricultural use. Pet. App. 4a. In 1987, the thenowner, Signal Pukao Corporation, petitioned the
Commission to reclassify the 1,060 acres from agricultural to urban, to allow for the development of a
mixed residential community. Id. at 5a. The Commission approved the petition in 1989, but required
as a condition of that approval that the landowner
make 60% of the residential units affordable. Id.
The Commission later specified that failure to adhere
to this requirement “may result in reversion” to an
agricultural classification. Id. at 6a.
5
2. The property remained subject to these conditions—but undeveloped—when Bridge acquired it in
1999 for $5.2 million. Id. at 7a. Nearly six years
later, in 2005, Bridge moved to amend the Commission’s order to reduce the percentage of affordable
units from 60% to 20%. Id. The Commission agreed,
but in so doing, specified that the landowner must
“provide occupancy certificates for all affordable
housing units by November 17, 2010,” or risk reversion. Id. Bridge accepted these conditions and
repeatedly “assure[d]” the Commission that it would
comply with them. Id. at 8a.
Beginning in 2008, however, several Commissioners began to “express[ ] concern[ ]” that Bridge had
not made any progress on the affordable-unit requirement. Id. Accordingly, in December 2008, the
Commission issued an order to show cause (“OSC”)
why the land should not revert to the prior agricultural use classification. Id. Following a hearing, the
Commission unanimously determined by a voice vote
on April 30, 2009 to revert the 1,060 acre parcel to
agricultural use. Id. at 9a. But “[t]he Commission
never put the result of the [voice] vote into a final
written order,” and so it did not take effect. Id.
While these OSC proceedings were pending, Bridge
agreed to sell the 1,060 acres to DW Aina Le‘a Development, LLC (“DW”) for $40.7 million in two phases:
60 acres in December 2009 and the remainder in
February 2010. Id. at 8a-11a. In August 2009,
Bridge and DW asked the Commission to rescind the
OSC, and represented that, if the Commission did so,
they would “provide[ ]” the affordable units by the
original November 2010 deadline. Id. at 10a. The
Commission agreed to rescind the OSC subject to
that commitment. To ensure that Bridge and DW
6
followed through, the Commission also set a benchmark: Bridge and DW had to construct approximately 4% of the affordable units—sixteen in total—by
March 31, 2010. Id.
In June 2010, DW told the Commission that it had
completed the sixteen units by the March deadline,
as promised. Id. at 11a. But the Commission discovered that DW’s representation was false. On
investigation, it determined that those units “lacked
water, a sewage system, electricity, and paved road
access,” and so “were not habitable.” Id. Because
Bridge and DW had yet again failed to fulfill the
conditions they had agreed to, the Commission
unanimously voted to reopen the OSC and “reiterat[e]” the deadline from the 2005 Order requiring
delivery of all affordable units by November 2010.
Id.
When Bridge and DW missed that deadline, too,
the Commission voted to revert the land. The final
Reversion Order was issued on April 25, 2011. Id. at
12a. Despite agreeing to do so by February 2010,
DW had not yet purchased the remaining 1,000 acres
from Bridge by the time the Commission issued the
Reversion Order. Id. at 12a-13a.
3. Bridge and DW appealed the Reversion Order to
a Hawaii circuit court, which found that the Commission had violated certain procedural requirements and Bridge’s due process and equal protection
rights, and rescinded the Reversion Order. Id. at
13a. The Hawaii Supreme Court affirmed in part
and vacated in part. DW Aina Le‘a Dev., LLC v.
Bridge Aina Le‘a, LLC., 339 P.3d 685 (Haw. 2014).
The Hawaii Supreme Court agreed that the Reversion Order violated certain statutory requirements,
7
because the Commission had not issued a decision
within 365 days of the OSC finding that the reversion was reasonable and consistent with Hawaii law.
Id. at 714. But it concluded Bridge’s due process
rights had not been violated because Bridge received
adequate notice of the reversion and the Reversion
Order “was not arbitrary and unreasonable.” Id. at
716-717 (internal quotation marks omitted). The
Hawaii Supreme Court also held that the Commission had not treated Bridge unfairly in violation of
the Equal Protection Clause. Id. at 717-718.
B. Procedural History
1. Bridge sued the Commission and several Commissioners in their official and individual capacities
in Hawaii state court in June 2011, alleging that by
temporarily depriving it of the right to develop the
1,060 acres, the Reversion Order constituted a taking
in violation of both the Fifth Amendment and Hawaii
Constitution, among other things. 1 See Pet. App.
15a-16a. The State removed the case to federal court
and moved to dismiss. Id. at 16a. The District Court
dismissed several of Bridge’s claims, including its
claims against the individual defendants, but allowed its takings claims to proceed to trial.
1
In 2017, DW brought a separate takings challenge against the
Commission under federal and state law, which the district
court dismissed. On appeal, the Ninth Circuit certified a
question concerning the statute of limitations for taking claims
under Hawaii law to the Hawaii Supreme Court. Because the
answer to the certification order may bear on DW’s federal
takings claims, the Ninth Circuit has not yet ruled on those
claims. DW Aina Le‘a Dev., LLC v. State of Hawai‘i Land Use
Comm’n, 918 F.3d 602 (9th Cir. 2019).
8
At trial, a Senior Planner at the State Land Use
Commission testified that agricultural districts had
previously been approved for a variety of special-use
permits, including:
rock quarrying operations; cinder and
sand mining facilities; concrete batching
plants; construction waste facilities;
landfills; public and private sewage
treatment plants; gardens and zoos;
schools,
everything
from
prekindergarten up to college; memorial
parks, including crematoriums; agricultural tourism facilities[;] * * * commercial facilities, including post office[s]
[and] gas stations; * * * private storage
facilities; construction yards; maintenance facilities; [and] telecommunications facilities and structures.
2 SER 423, at 5-62; see Haw. Rev. Stat. § 205-6(a).
Bridge’s witness explained that Bridge planned to
build a sewage treatment plant on the adjacent 2,000
acre property. See Pet. App. 30a. Yet Bridge’s landuse economist testified that he had not studied
whether the 1,060 acre parcel was suitable for any
special uses. 2 SER 420, at 6. Bridge also presented
testimony from an appraiser who evaluated the
land’s change in value before and after the voice
vote, but did not similarly evaluate the difference in
value before and after the Reversion Order. See
PSER 232-233, 258; Pet. App. 24a-25a.
2
SER refers to the State’s Supplemental Excerpts of Record
and PSER refers to Bridge’s Supplemental Excerpts of Record.
Both are available on the Ninth Circuit’s docket.
9
After Bridge’s case in chief, the State moved for
judgment as a matter of law (JMOL) based on Lucas
and Penn Central. The State argued that Bridge had
not established a taking, but that even if it had,
Bridge was entitled to only nominal damages because it lacked admissible evidence of compensation.
The district court denied JMOL as to takings liability but agreed that Bridge was entitled at most to
nominal damages. Pet. App. 17a. The jury then
found that a taking had occurred pursuant to both
Lucas and Penn Central, and the District Court
“awarded $1 in nominal damages.” Id. at 54a-55a.
The State renewed its motion for JMOL on the
question of takings liability, which the District Court
again denied. Id. at 56a-125a.
3. The Ninth Circuit unanimously reversed the
District Court’s denial of JMOL for the takings
claims. Writing for the court, Judge Milan Smith
(joined by Judges Graber and Watford) held that
Bridge had not suffered a taking under either Lucas
or Penn Central.
With respect to Lucas, the panel explained that the
evidence demonstrated that Bridge’s land retained
both substantial economic value and economically
beneficial uses, thereby precluding its categorical
takings claim. Even accepting Bridge’s expert testimony at face-value (despite the fact that it rested on
“demonstrably wrong” assumptions), the land had
suffered—at most—an 83.4% diminution in value,
far short of the “total” deprivation required under
Lucas. Id. at 24a-25a. The panel also held that
Bridge had failed to demonstrate that the Reversion
Order “deprived Bridge of all economically feasible
uses of the land,” because Bridge had not addressed
whether all of the permissible agricultural uses were
10
infeasible and had not “account[ed] for any of the
uses for which the Commission had granted special
permits in the past, such as a sewage treatment
plant or rock quarrying.” Id. at 30a.
The panel further concluded that Bridge had failed
to show a taking under the three-part Penn Central
test. First, the court explained that the Reversion
Order’s economic impact “weigh[ed] strongly against
a taking.” Id. at 37a. Much of Bridge’s evidence
turned on the land’s value before and after the
Commission’s voice vote, which did not actually
constitute a taking. Accordingly, no reasonable jury
could have relied on this evidence in determining the
economic impact of the Reversion Order, nearly two
years later. Id. at 33a-37a. And even if that timetable had been correct, Bridge’s expert “substantially
overstate[d] the relevant diminution in value Bridge
could have suffered.” Id. at 34a. In fact, using the
damages amount Bridge pursued at trial as a baseline, Bridge suffered “a roughly 48% diminution in
value.” Id. at 35a-36a. And when that figure was
further adjusted to “account for the reversion’s actual
one-year duration,” Bridge suffered—at most—a
16.8% diminution in value. Id. at 36a.
Second, given the state of the land when Bridge
purchased it, the Reversion Order did not interfere
with Bridge’s “reasonable investment-backed expectations.” Id. at 38a-43a. Bridge did not have “a
reasonable expectation that the Commission would
not revert the land” after Bridge had purchased it,
given that Bridge itself agreed that the land could be
reverted if Bridge failed to satisfy the affordablehousing requirement. Id. at 41a. And there is no
dispute that Bridge continually failed to meet the
Commission’s deadlines for that requirement; in
11
light of that, “Bridge could [not] reasonably expect
that the Commission would not enforce the conditions” and revert the land. Id. at 42a-43a.
Third, the court held that “much of [Bridge’s] evidence was insufficient to establish that” the “character of the government action” weighed in favor of a
taking. Id. at 43a-44a. The Reversion Order “reflect[ed]” Hawaii’s “generally applicable * * * land
use reclassification procedure” and so did not unfairly single out Bridge for unfavorable treatment. Id. at
44a. And although the Hawaii Supreme Court had
invalidated the Reversion Order, it had done so on
“statutory procedural” grounds, which carried no
“constitutional significance.” Id. at 45a. In any
event, the panel explained, “[e]ven if” the character
of the government’s action favored Bridge, that was
not enough to outweigh the first two factors. Id. at
44a-46a. Thus, it concluded, “no reasonable jury
could find that Bridge’s evidence satisfied the Penn
Central test.” Id. at 46a.
Because the panel held that “the district court
should have granted the State’s motion” for JMOL on
both Lucas and Penn Central, it did “not address” the
other takings issues the parties had “raise[d] on
appeal.” Id. at 46a-47a.3
3
The State also argued that the District Court had erred in
failing to permit the jury to consider whether 1,060 or 3,000
was the relevant denominator for Bridge’s taking claim. For its
part, Bridge raised several claims concerning the nominal
damages issue, sought review of the dismissal of its claims
against several Commissioners, and argued that it was not
precluded from raising an equal protection challenge in federal
court. See Commission CA9 Second Br. on Cross-Appeal 3-4.
The panel reached only the last of these claims, holding that
12
REASONS FOR DENYING THE PETITION
Bridge seeks certiorari on three questions. First, it
asks this Court to review the Ninth Circuit’s application of Lucas and Penn Central to the facts of this
case. Second, it asks this Court to overrule its seminal 1978 decision in Penn Central. Third, it argues
that the panel did not grant adequate deference to
certain jury findings. None of these questions presents a split of authority or otherwise merits this
Court’s review.
I.
CERTIORARI
IS
UNWARRANTED
TO
REVIEW THE PANEL’S APPLICATION OF
LUCAS AND PENN CENTRAL.
The Takings Clause prohibits the taking of “private
property * * * for public use, without just compensation.” U.S. Const. amend. V. A classic taking occurs
when the “government directly appropriates private
property or ousts the owner from his domain.”
Lingle v. Chevron U.S.A. Inc., 544 U.S. 528, 539
(2005). “[E]arly constitutional theorists did not
believe the Takings Clause embraced regulations of
property at all.” Id. at 537 (quoting Lucas, 505 U.S.
at 1028 n.15). Nevertheless, in 1922, this Court
began recognizing that a regulation “can be so burdensome as to become a taking.” Murr, 137 S. Ct. at
1942 (citing Pennsylvania Coal Co. v. Mahon, 260
U.S. 393 (1922)).
Two categories of regulatory takings are relevant
here. First, a regulation that “ ‘denies all economically beneficial or productive use of land,’ ” known as
the Hawaii Supreme Court’s dismissal of Bridge’s equal
protection claim was entitled to preclusive effect. Pet. App. 52a.
13
a Lucas taking, “will require compensation under the
Takings Clause.” Palazzolo v. Rhode Island, 533
U.S. 606, 617 (2001) (quoting Lucas, 505 U.S. at
1015) (emphasis added). Second, even when a regulation does not rise to the complete deprivation
required by Lucas, a taking still may be found based
on the Penn Central factors: “(1) the economic impact
of the regulation on the claimant; (2) the extent to
which the regulation has interfered with distinct
investment-backed expectations; and (3) the character of the governmental action.” Murr, 137 S. Ct. at
1943 (citing Palazzolo, 533 U.S. at 617; Penn Central, 438 U.S. at 124).
The panel correctly applied these precedents and
held that the Reversion Order was not a taking
under either Lucas or Penn Central because (1) it did
not deny Bridge all economically beneficial use or
value of the 1,060 acre parcel, Pet. App. 24a-31a, and
(2) at least two of the three Penn Central factors
“weigh decisively against” finding a taking, id. at
46a. Bridge does not identify any respect in which
these holdings merit this Court’s review.
A. The Ninth Circuit Correctly Held that Lucas Requires A Complete Loss.
Bridge first argues that the Ninth Circuit erred by
holding that a Lucas taking requires “a total deprivation.” Pet. 16. In its view, Lucas “must have
intended something else.” Id. But the Ninth Circuit
straightforwardly and correctly applied Lucas, and
Bridge does not identify any court that has interpreted Lucas differently.
1. Lucas, by its terms, requires a “total loss.” 505
U.S. at 1019 n.8. It reiterated seven times that
“categorical treatment [is] appropriate” only “where
14
[a] regulation denies all economically beneficial or
productive use of land.” Id. at 1015 (emphasis added); accord id. at 1018, 1019, 1027, 1028, 1029, 1030;
see also id. at 1018 (explaining that a total loss
typically occurs when the land is required “to be left
substantially in its natural state”). This Court has
consistently interpreted and applied Lucas accordingly. See, e.g., Murr, 137 S. Ct. at 1949 (“Petitioners
have not suffered a taking under Lucas, as they have
not been deprived of all economically beneficial use of
their property.”); Tahoe-Sierra Pres. Council, Inc. v.
Tahoe Reg’l Planning Agency, 535 U.S. 302, 330
(2002) (“Lucas states that compensation is required
when a regulation deprives an owner of ‘all economically beneficial uses’ of his land.’ ” (quoting Lucas,
505 U.S. at 1019)); Palazzolo, 533 U.S. 606 (rejecting
Lucas claim where landowner suffered 93% loss).
The Ninth Circuit articulated and applied that rule
correctly here. In the decision below, the panel held
that, even accepting much of Bridge’s flawed evidence, it had demonstrated at most “an 83.4% diminution in value.” Pet. App. 25a. That was well short
of a “total deprivation.” Id. Because Bridge had
failed to show “that the [R]eversion [Order] deprived
Bridge of all economically feasible uses of the land,”
its Lucas claim failed. Id. at 30a.
2. Not surprisingly, other circuits and state high
courts have interpreted Lucas the same way as the
panel below. As the Ninth Circuit explained, its
approach is consistent with that of the Federal
Circuit. Id. at 25a-26a; see, e.g., Appolo Fuels, Inc. v.
United States, 381 F.3d 1338, 1347 (Fed. Cir. 2004)
(“a 92% loss of the value of one lease and a 78% loss
of the other is manifestly insufficient” under Lucas);
Cooley v. United States, 324 F.3d 1297, 1304-05 (Fed.
15
Cir. 2003) (same, for 98.8% loss). Other courts have
likewise denied Lucas claims where the property
owner did not suffer a total loss. See, e.g., Front
Royal & Warren Cty. Indus. Park Corp. v. Town of
Front Royal, 135 F.3d 275, 286 (4th Cir. 1998) (finding no Lucas taking where loss was—at most—50%);
Tennessee Scrap Recyclers Ass’n v. Bredesen, 556
F.3d 442, 455 (6th Cir. 2009) (holding that, because
the regulation “d[id] not render the scrap dealers’
property a total loss,” it was “not a taking under
Lucas” (internal quotation marks omitted)); Columbia Venture, LLC v. Richland County, 776 S.E.2d
900, 912 n.19 (S.C. 2015) (same, where 30% of the
property was not subject to the relevant restriction).4
Bridge’s authorities are not to the contrary. In
support of its claim that “Lucas could [not] have
required a total deprivation,” Bridge quotes articles
discussing the degree of loss required under Penn
Central. Pet. 15-16. But the Ninth Circuit did not
hold that a total deprivation is required to satisfy
Penn Central. Indeed, it made clear just the opposite
4
See also, e.g., McAndrews v. Fleet Bank of Massachusetts,
N.A., 989 F.2d 13, 18 (1st Cir. 1993); 1256 Hertel Ave. Assocs.,
LLC v. Calloway, 761 F.3d 252, 264-265 (2d Cir. 2014); Ass’n of
New Jersey Rifle & Pistol Clubs, Inc. v. Attorney Gen. New
Jersey, 910 F.3d 106, 124 (3d Cir. 2018); United States v. Fuller,
453 F.3d 274, 278 (5th Cir. 2006); Muscarello v. Ogle Cty. Bd. of
Comm’rs, 610 F.3d 416, 421 (7th Cir. 2010); Hawkeye
Commodity Promotions, Inc. v. Vilsack, 486 F.3d 430, 441 (8th
Cir. 2007); New Port Largo, Inc. v. Monroe County, 95 F.3d
1084, 1089 (11th Cir. 1996); Dist. Intown Props. Ltd. P’ship v.
District of Columbia, 198 F.3d 874, 882 (D.C. Cir. 1999);
Machipongo Land & Coal Co. v. Commonwealth, 799 A.2d 751,
769-770 (Pa. 2002); Kavanau v. Santa Monica Rent Control Bd.,
941 P.2d 851, 863 (Cal. 1997).
16
was true. See Pet. App. 46a (explaining “Bridge’s
own evidence established a diminution in value that
is proportionately too small” (emphasis added)).5
Bridge also cites (at 16-18 & nn.7-8) several cases
that predate Lucas by nearly a decade, which addressed what must be lost to constitute a taking, not
whether the loss must be total and complete. See,
e.g., Kirby Forest Indus., Inc. v. United States, 467
U.S. 1, 14-15 (1984) (discussing landowner’s loss of
the “ability to derive income from his land,” and
citing Penn Central); Wheeler v. City of Pleasant
Grove, 833 F.2d 267, 271 (11th Cir. 1987) (“The
landowner’s compensable interest, therefore, is the
return on the portion of fair market value that is lost
as a result of the regulatory restriction.”). These
authorities hardly establish inconsistency or confusion about this Court’s subsequent decision in Lucas.
3. Bridge is also incorrect that reading Lucas as
establishing a total-loss requirement would be overly
strict. Unlike Penn Central, which requires a caseby-case analysis, “the categorical rule in Lucas was
carved out for the ‘extraordinary case’ * * * ; the
default rule remains that, in the regulatory taking
context, we require a more fact specific inquiry.”
Tahoe-Sierra, 535 U.S. at 332. It is therefore no
surprise that so few cases clear this bar, see Pet.
5
Along similar lines, Bridge says that “Penn Central * * * could
[not] have required a total deprivation in order to meet [its]
threshold[ ].” Pet. 16; see id. at 27. Neither did the panel. It
used the total diminution standard only in applying Lucas’s
categorical rule.
See Pet. App. 36a (holding that “an
approximately 16.8% diminution in value * * * weighs against
the conclusion that the reversion constituted a taking” under
Penn Central).
17
App. 21a n.7—as this Court has explained, under
Lucas, even a “landowner with 95% loss will get
nothing.” Lucas, 505 U.S. at 1019 n.8; accord, e.g.,
Palazzolo, 533 U.S. 606 (93% loss insufficient).
Of course, failure to satisfy Lucas’s complete loss
requirement does not doom a litigant’s claim. It
simply means she must instead prevail under Penn
Central. That non-categorical framework does not
require a complete and total loss, but instead balances the “economic impact of the regulation” against
other factors. Penn Central, 438 U.S. at 124.
B. Certiorari Is Not Warranted To Determine
Whether A Categorical Taking Turns On
Loss of Use or Loss of Value.
Bridge next claims (at 19-21) that certiorari is warranted to address whether a Lucas taking requires
total loss of use or instead total loss of value. This
case, however, does not implicate that question, and
it would not merit this Court’s review even if it were
properly presented.
1. This case does not present an opportunity for
this Court to resolve whether a Lucas taking turns
on loss of use or loss of value. The Ninth Circuit
expressly examined whether the Reversion Order
deprived Bridge of either the total value or all economically viable use of the parcel at issue, and it
found that Bridge’s Lucas claim fails under either
approach.
The panel first concluded that “the land retained
substantial economic value” because, using Bridge’s
own figures, the land retained at least 16.6% of its
value, which “was neither de minimis, nor * * *
derive[d] from noneconomic uses.” Pet. App. 24a-28a
(emphasis added; capitalization omitted); see, e.g., id.
18
at 27a (“In the end, the relevant inquiry for us is
whether the land’s residual value reflected a token
interest or was attributable to noneconomic use.”).
The panel then held that “the reversion did not
deprive Bridge of all economically viable uses of the
land” because Bridge had failed to show that none of
the potential remaining uses for the land were viable
or economically feasible. Id. at 28a-31a (emphasis
added; capitalization omitted). Both the remaining
value and the remaining use thus precluded Bridge’s
Lucas argument. The choice between those two
measurements would make no difference to the
outcome of this case.
2. Even if the choice between use and value were
implicated here, Bridge fails to identify any division
between the Ninth Circuit’s approach and the test
applied by other circuits.
As the panel noted, the Federal Circuit has consistently taken the same approach to Lucas takings—
that is, by looking to both use and value to determine
whether a categorical taking has occurred. Id. at
25a-26a (collecting cases). For example, in Lost Tree
Village Corp. v. United States, the Federal Circuit
explained that, as long as “the landowner [is] left
with value attributable to economic uses,” a Lucas
taking has not occurred. 787 F.3d 1111, 1116 (Fed.
Cir. 2015). By contrast, “a token interest,” or some
“residual value * * * not attributable to economic
uses” will not defeat a Lucas claim. Id. (internal
quotation marks omitted); see also, e.g., Appolo
Fuels, 381 F.3d at 1346-47 (where company could
continue using 8-22% of its land for mining purposes,
the land retained “economically viable use” and had
not lost all “value”); Palm Beach Isles Assocs. v.
United States, 231 F.3d 1354, 1357 (Fed. Cir. 2000)
19
(“A ‘categorical’ taking is, by accepted convention,
one in which all economically viable use, i.e., all
economic value, has been taken by the regulatory
imposition.”).
Other circuits have applied the same approach:
They have considered whether property both retains
value and has some economically beneficial use
before denying a Lucas claim. See, e.g., Hawkeye
Commodity Promotions, Inc. v. Vilsack, 486 F.3d 430,
441 (8th Cir. 2007) (rejecting Lucas claim where
property retained some “market value” and was not
deprived of “all economically beneficial uses” (internal quotation marks omitted)); Dist. Intown Props.
Ltd. P’ship v. District of Columbia, 198 F.3d 874, 882
(D.C. Cir. 1999) (same, where property was not
rendered “valueless” or “deprived * * * of all economically beneficial use” (internal quotation marks omitted)); Henry v. Jefferson Cty. Comm’n, 637 F.3d 269,
276 (4th Cir. 2011) (same, where the land “retained
permitted uses that obviously possessed economic
value”).6 Bridge identifies no meaningful difference
6
Some of Bridge’s amici claim that a split exists on the issue of
use versus value. E.g., Pac. Legal Found. et al. Amicus Br. 1015. Many of their cases simply recited the Lucas standard in
the general background discussion and did not have occasion to
apply that test or are otherwise inapposite. See, e.g., State ex
rel. Shemo v. City of Mayfield Heights, 775 N.E.2d 493, 496-497
(Ohio 2002) (finding Tahoe-Sierra did not apply, and not citing
Lucas); SDDS, Inc. v. State, 650 N.W.2d 1, 10 (S.D. 2002)
(finding there was no question that Lucas did not apply). The
others are consistent with the Ninth Circuit’s approach here.
See, e.g., Pac. Legal Found. et al. Amicus Br. 11-13 (citing Lost
Tree and District Intown); see also Caruso v. Zoning Bd. of
Appeals of City of Meriden, 130 A.3d 241, 247 (Conn. 2016)
(evidence that “a reasonable use of the property remain[s]” such
20
between the approach taken by those courts and the
decision below.
3. The view that both value and use are relevant to
the Lucas inquiry is once again firmly supported by
this Court’s cases. Start with Lucas. There, this
Court affirmed the trial court’s holding that Lucas’s
property was “rendered valueless” because it retained “no economically viable use.” 505 U.S. at
1020; see id. at 1009, 1031-32. Of course, the land
was not actually worthless—as the dissent noted,
Lucas still retained “the right to exclude others,” and
could “picnic, swim, camp in a tent, or live on the
property in a movable trailer.” Id. at 1043-44
(Blackmun, J., dissenting). But the “value” of those
uses was not “economically productive.” See id. at
1030 (majority opinion). As one commentator has
explained, Lucas therefore looked to two related
factors to determine whether the property retained
“an economically viable use”: whether the landowner
could use the property in an economically productive
manner, and “the remaining market value of the
land,” because a property that is truly “valueless”
necessarily retains “no economically viable use.”
Ann T. Kadlecek, Note, The Effect of Lucas v. South
Carolina Coastal Council on the Law of Regulatory
Takings, 68 Wash. L. Rev. 415, 427 (1993).
Despite Bridge’s suggestion (at 21), Tahoe-Sierra is
not to the contrary. There, the Court explained that
Lucas held that “a statute that ‘wholly eliminated
the value’ of” the property “clearly qualified as a
taking,” but only in “the extraordinary circumstance
that the property “retain[s] some value” “precludes a finding of
practical confiscation” (internal quotation marks omitted)).
21
when no productive or economically beneficial use of
land is permitted.” 535 U.S. at 330 (quoting Lucas,
505 U.S. at 1017). Although the Court later said
that Lucas applies only where “a regulation permanently deprives property of all value,” id. at 332, this
earlier discussion demonstrates that it understood
that to mean “value derived from economically
beneficial use.”
This Court’s other cases are in accord. In Murr, for
example, the Court held a Lucas taking had not
occurred because the property had “not lost all
economic value” and could still be used in an “economically beneficial” manner. 137 S. Ct. at 1949.
Likewise, in Palazzolo, the Court rejected a Lucas
claim where the property “retain[ed] $200,000 in
development value” and so was not “ ‘economically
idle.’ ” 533 U.S. at 630-631 (quoting Lucas, 505 U.S.
at 1019); see also, e.g., Lingle, 544 U.S. at 539-540,
(stating in dicta that “the complete elimination of a
property’s value is the determinative factor” because
“total deprivation of beneficial use is, from the landowner’s point of view, the equivalent of a physical
appropriation” (internal quotation marks omitted)).7
As Bridge ultimately concedes (at 21), its quarrel is
with “this Court’s opinions” describing and applying
Lucas. Certiorari is unwarranted to review the
Ninth Circuit’s faithful application of those opinions
here.
7
Nor is there any inconsistency with this Court’s cases looking
to “profits”—there needs to be an economically productive use
available such that the landowner could profit from (i.e., derive
value from) that use of the land. See Pet. 17-18.
22
4. Implicitly conceding that the court below looked
to both use and value, Bridge also launches a factbound assault on the Ninth Circuit’s finding that the
land retained some economically productive uses.
Bridge repeatedly asserts (at 6, 8, 25) that the Ninth
Circuit erred by relying on one witness’s testimony
that the land might be “good for growing rocks.”
According to Bridge, its land-use economist, Dr.
Plasch, provided this testimony after he had “tired of
the State’s mode of questioning and figuratively
threw up his hands by sarcastically suggesting that
the land might be ‘good for growing rocks.’ ” Pet. 6.
Reviewing the Ninth Circuit’s interpretation of a
single snippet of trial testimony is not, of course, a
worthwhile use of this Court’s certiorari jurisdiction.
But Bridge’s charge is inaccurate. John Baldwin,
Bridge’s founder, volunteered this testimony on
direct examination, without prompting or badgering.
2 SER 419, at 8. And it is far from clear that this
was “sarcas[m].” Pet. 25. Lava can produce igneous
rock, and agricultural land can be used for rock
quarrying operations (removing rocks produced in
one place for use in another). See 2 SER 423, at 6;
see also Pet. 4, 5 n.2 (describing the land as “covered
with big rocks” and “stony with rough lava” (internal
quotation marks omitted)).
In any event, the Ninth Circuit separately found
that the land was potentially suitable for additional
uses. As the panel explained, the Commission had
previously approved agriculturally-zoned land for a
variety of “special” uses, including a sewage plant, as
allowed by Hawaii law. Pet. App. 30a; see Haw. Rev.
Stat. § 205-6(a); 2 SER 423, at 6. There was evidence
that “Bridge intended to place a sewage treatment
plant on the adjacent 2,000 acres of agriculturally
23
zoned land,” Pet. App. 30a, and there was no evidence that the 1,060 acre-parcel was not similarly
suited. Nor did Bridge present any evidence as to
why the myriad other special uses were not feasible
here. Indeed, Bridge’s expert testified that he had
not considered whether the 1,060 parcel was suitable
for any such use.
Because there were other possible “permissible
uses” for this property, Bridge was not denied all
“economically viable use of [its] property,” and its
Lucas claim must fail. Id. at 28a (internal quotation
marks omitted).
C. This Court Should Not Grant Certiorari To
“Clari[fy]” That “Temporary” Takings Are
Actionable.
Finally, Bridge claims that the Ninth Circuit erred
by holding that there was no taking because any loss
of use was only temporary. Pet. 24. It asks this
Court to grant certiorari to hold that temporary
losses of value may also be unconstitutional takings,
and should be analyzed exactly the same as permanent takings. Id. at 21-29. Once again, that request
is unwarranted.
1. Like Bridge’s other claims, this argument rests
on an erroneous premise. The Ninth Circuit did not
conclude that a temporary loss could never amount to
a taking. It concluded there was no temporary
taking here because Bridge did not suffer a sufficient
loss during any period of time to constitute a taking
under either Lucas or Penn Central. Pet. App. 46a;
24
see id. at 36a (“account[ing] for the reversion’s actual
one-year duration”).8
As a result, this case once again does not implicate
the issue Bridge raises. Indeed, the Ninth Circuit’s
approach is indistinguishable from the rule that
Petitioner advocates. See Pet. 28. The court did not
dispute that temporary takings exist and can require
compensation. But it concluded that even the temporary taking at issue here did not qualify under
Lucas because it was not “severe enough to eliminate
all economically productive use for” any period of
time. See id.; Pet. App. 21a-31a. It also examined
“all factors” under Penn Central and held that “the
severity of the impact” of the Reversion Order did not
“cause[ ] a compensatory taking.” See Pet. 28; Pet.
App. 31a-46a (finding that, on balance, “no reasonable jury could conclude that the reversion effected a
taking pursuant to the Penn Central analysis”).
2. Given that the Ninth Circuit did not propound
the rule Petitioner claims, this issue is not certworthy.
First, there is no circuit split on this question, and
Bridge does not even attempt to claim otherwise.
The only circuit court case Bridge cites in support of
this argument (at 26) was not “a regulatory-takings
case” and is therefore inapposite. Caquelin v. United
8
Bridge faults the Ninth Circuit for “relegat[ing]” its discussion
of temporary takings to the Penn Central analysis, rather than
separately considering whether the Lucas standard was met.
Pet. 24-26. But given that the Ninth Circuit found that any
temporary loss of value or use was less than total, Bridge’s
temporary takings claim would a fortiori have failed under
Lucas as well.
25
States, 959 F.3d 1360, 1368 (Fed. Cir. 2020). Furthermore, that case merely stands for the principles
that “physical takings are compensable, even when
temporary,” id. at 1364 (internal quotation marks
omitted), and that the specific type of taking at issue
there qualified as “categorical,” even though it was
“temporary,” id. at 1367.
Second, the Ninth Circuit correctly applied this
Court’s precedents. It is undisputed that temporary
deprivations are compensable under the Takings
Clause. First English, 482 U.S. at 318. It is also
undisputed that “the duration of the restriction is
one of the important factors that a court must consider in the appraisal of a regulatory takings claim”
under Penn Central. Tahoe-Sierra, 535 U.S. at 342.
And it is undisputed that a regulation gives rise to a
Lucas taking only when it results in a complete
deprivation. Supra, pp. 13-17.
Here, the Ninth Circuit held that the Reversion
Order did not constitute a taking under Lucas because it did not effect a complete and total deprivation. And it held—in light of its duration, among
other facts—that the Reversion Order did not constitute a taking under Penn Central, either. Neither of
those holdings amounts to a categorical rejection of
temporary takings claims.9
9
This Court recently granted certiorari to resolve a circuit split
concerning “whether the uncompensated appropriation of an
easement that is limited in time effects a per se physical taking
under the Fifth Amendment.” Pet. for a Writ of Certiorari at i,
Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid, No. 20-107 (U.S. July 29, 2020)
(emphasis added). That case has no bearing on the questions
presented here: As Petitioners there explained, Cedar Point
“involves * * * physical invasions * * * which, unlike regulatory
26
II.
CERTIORARI
IS
UNWARRANTED
RECONSIDER PENN CENTRAL.
TO
Evidently unable to identify any cert-worthy question regarding the application of existing law, Bridge
makes a bolder ask: It urges the Court to grant
certiorari to decide whether to overrule Penn Central
itself. This Court has time and again declined similar requests.10 It should do the same here. Whatever the cert-worthiness of that broader question, this
case presents an exceptionally poor vehicle to address it. And Bridge has failed to make anything
close to the showing necessary to overcome the stare
decisis to which Penn Central is entitled.
1. This case would be an extremely unsuitable vehicle to reconsider the validity of Penn Central.
To start, this case is highly record-intensive. The
Reversion Order has already prompted three cases,
which in turn have spawned one appeal to the Hause restrictions, are not subject to Penn Central’s multifactor
test.” Id. at 13. Indeed, the Cedar Point Petitioners did not
even raise a Penn Central claim. Br. in Opp’n at 7-8, 12, Cedar
Point, No. 20-107 (U.S. Oct. 2, 2020).
10
See, e.g., Pet. for a Writ of Certiorari at i-ii, Smyth v. Conservation Comm’n of Falmouth, 140 S. Ct. 667 (2019) (No. 19-223);
Pet. for a Writ of Certiorari at i, Charles A. Pratt Constr. Co. v.
California Coastal Comm’n, 555 U.S. 1171 (2009) (No. 08-668);
see also, e.g., Pet. for a Writ of Certiorari at i, Colony Cove
Props., LLC v. City of Carson, 139 S. Ct. 917 (2019) (No. 18573); Br. Amicus Curiae of Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence in Support of Petitioners, Kitsap All. of Prop. Owners v.
Central Puget Sound Growth Mgmt. Hearings Bd., 566 U.S. 904
(2012) (No. 11-457); Pet. for a Writ of Certiorari at i, Rose Acre
Farms, Inc. v. United States, 559 U.S. 935 (2010) (No. 09-342);
Br. in Opp’n at 8, Hsu v. County of Clark, 544 U.S. 1056 (2005)
(No. 04-1282).
27
waii Supreme Court, three appeals to the Ninth
Circuit, and one certification order. See Pet. App.
13a, 15a-16a & n.4. In this case alone, the trial ran
eight days, the excerpts of record in the Ninth Circuit spanned twenty-two volumes, and the parties
raised a combined total of nine issues on appeal. See
Commission CA9 Second Br. on Cross-Appeal 3-4.
These factual and procedural complexities would
make this case a challenging vehicle to review any
issue, let alone to reexamine one of this Court’s
seminal constitutional precedents.
Further, it is difficult to see how Bridge suffered a
taking under any reasonable understanding of the
Takings Clause. For one, it is highly unlikely that
Bridge would win under any alternative formulation
of Penn Central. Bridge specifically challenges only
the formulation of the first Penn Central factor. See
Pet. 14-16. But because Bridge agreed to and then
failed to satisfy the very conditions that triggered the
reversion, the second factor also “weighs strongly
against finding a taking.” Pet. App. 43a; see, e.g.,
Good v. United States, 189 F.3d 1355, 1361-62 (Fed.
Cir. 1999) (where buyer knew of regulatory restrictions on development at the time of purchase, he
“could not have had a reasonable expectation that he
would obtain approval to [develop it]”). There were
likewise serious flaws in Bridge’s argument under
the third factor—the character of the government
action. Pet. App. 43a-46a; supra, p. 11.
And it is not readily apparent whether Bridge
would win under an alternative test, either, because
28
it does not propose one. Neither do its amici. 11
Perhaps Bridge thinks the first Penn Central prong
should be subject to some specific percentagethreshold? But Bridge’s own evidence establishes
that it suffered at most a 16.8-48% diminution, Pet.
App. 36a, and there does not appear to be any case
“in which a court has found a taking where diminution in value was less than 50 percent.” Colony Cove
Props., LLC v. City of Carson, 888 F.3d 445, 451 (9th
Cir. 2018) (internal quotation marks omitted), cert.
denied, 139 S. Ct. 917 (2019); CCA Assocs. v. United
States, 667 F.3d 1239, 1246 (Fed. Cir. 2011). Or
maybe Bridge hopes this Court will replace Penn
Central, which has long been the “polestar” of its
takings jurisprudence, with something else entirely?
Tahoe-Sierra, 535 U.S. at 336 (quoting Palazzolo,
533 U.S. at 633 (O’Connor, J., concurring)). The
State, and the Court, can only speculate as to what.
Nor is it clear that overruling Penn Central would
result in a victory for Bridge, even assuming Bridge
could prevail under some unknown new test. Because the Ninth Circuit held that Bridge had failed
11
Scholars are also divided on this issue. Compare, e.g.,
Kenneth Miller, Penn Central for Tomorrow: Making Regulatory Takings Predictable, 39 ELR 10457, 10457 (2009) (proposing
two-prong test, which collapses the first and second Penn
Central factors into one, and adds sub-prongs to the third
factor); with Lise Johnson, Note, After Tahoe Sierra, One Thing
Is Clearer: There Is Still A Fundamental Lack of Clarity, 46
Ariz. L. Rev. 353, 376 (2004) (proposing a due process-oriented
approach that “gives more deference to the decisions of
legislatures and zoning boards”), and Michael M. Berger, They
Found the Quark–Why Not a Takings Formula?, 47 Land Use L.
& Zoning Dig. 3, 4 (1995) (suggesting a 30% cutoff for the first
factor).
29
to establish a taking as a matter of law, it declined
“to consider the other taking issues that the parties
raise[d] on appeal.” Pet. App. 19a. That includes the
State’s claim that the District Court used the wrong
property denominator and its alternative argument
for a new trial.
The stakes in this case are also particularly low.
Even if this Court were to grant certiorari and hold
that a taking had occurred, as the District Court
found, Bridge is entitled to only $1 in nominal damages. See id. at 17a. If this Court is inclined to
review Penn Central, it should wait for a case in
which the issue is of more than academic interest to
the parties. If the problems with Penn Central are as
widespread as Petitioner claims, it will not need to
wait long.
2. Vehicle problems aside, Bridge also fails to make
anything close to the showing necessary to overcome
the stare decisis that Penn Central is due. See, e.g.,
Franchise Tax Bd. of California v. Hyatt, 139 S. Ct.
1485, 1499 (2019) (identifying relevant factors). And
when, as here, matters of “property and contract
rights” are at issue, “considerations favoring stare
decisis are at their acme.” Kimble v. Marvel Entm’t,
LLC, 576 U.S. 446, 457 (2015) (internal quotation
marks omitted).
Bridge does not attempt to demonstrate that Penn
Central was wrongly decided. It does not, for instance, identify any flaw in its reasoning or attempt
to show that it was incorrect as a matter of text,
precedent, or history. In fact, Penn Central followed
from and was consistent with this Court’s precedents. 438 U.S. at 124 (“[T]he Court’s decisions * * *
identif[y] several factors that have particular signifi-
30
cance” in determining whether a regulatory taking
has occurred.). “[T]he leading case,” Pennsylvania
Coal, 260 U.S. 393, recognized that “a state statute
that substantially furthers important public policies
may so frustrate distinct investment-backed expectations as to amount to a ‘taking.’ ” Penn Central, 438
U.S. at 127. The Court’s decision in Goldbatt v.
Town of Hempstead, 369 U.S. 590 (1962), looked to
“[t]he economic impact of the regulation on the
claimant,” and “the extent to which the regulation
has interfered with distinct investment-backed
expectations.” Penn Central, 438 U.S. at 124. Yet
Bridge does not call for this Court to overrule those
decisions, too.
Nor does Petitioner claim that Penn Central is outof-step with this Court’s subsequent decisions. To
the contrary, as Bridge acknowledges (at 9-10), this
Court has reaffirmed numerous times that, except
for those rare cases governed by bright-line rules,
“regulatory takings challenges are governed by the
standards set forth in Penn Central.” Lingle, 544
U.S. at 538; accord, e.g., Murr, 137 S. Ct. at 1943;
Arkansas Game & Fish Comm’n v. United States,
568 U.S. 23, 32 (2012); Tahoe-Sierra, 535 U.S. at 315
n.10, 330; Lucas, 505 U.S. at 1019 n.8; see also, e.g.,
Hodel v. Irving, 481 U.S. 704, 713-714 (1987); MacDonald, Sommer & Frates v. Yolo County, 477 U.S.
340, 349 (1986).
Instead, the petition boils down to a purely policybased critique of Penn Central, claiming (at 11-14)
that this fact-dependent standard fails to offer sufficient guidance and that it cannot be correct because
plaintiffs do not win enough under it. Neither criticism holds water, let alone justifies overruling a
longstanding precedent of this Court.
31
Bridge first claims that because Penn Central is a
fact-dependent standard, it cannot possibly be applied fairly by the lower courts. Nonsense. The law
is replete with such standards, and courts have no
trouble applying them in other contexts. See, e.g.,
Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 690 (1984)
(Sixth Amendment: ineffective assistance of counsel);
Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 9 (1968) (Fourth Amendment: reasonable suspicion for Terry stop). A “flexible” standard is especially appropriate for the takings context, as it allows courts “to reconcile two
competing objectives”: the individual’s right to the
interests and freedoms inherent in private property
ownership, and the state’s inherent need to “adjus[t]
rights for the public good.” Murr, 137 S. Ct. at 1943
(internal quotation marks omitted). Only by performing “a careful inquiry informed by the specifics
of the case” can a court “proper[ly] balanc[e] * * *
these principles.” Id.; accord Tahoe-Sierra, 535 U.S.
at 322 (explaining that Penn Central “allow[s] careful
examination and weighing of all the relevant circumstances” (internal quotation marks omitted)).
Nor is it a problem that plaintiffs often do not prevail on takings challenges. The mere fact that a rule
is demanding is not a reason it is wrong. See, e.g.,
Susan D. Carle, A Social Movement History of Title
VII Disparate Impact Analysis, 63 Fla. L. Rev. 251,
257 (2011) (explaining that plaintiffs rarely succeed
on Title VII disparate impact claims); Stephen F.
Smith, The Supreme Court and the Politics of Death,
94 Va. L. Rev. 283, 352 (2008) (“successful ineffective
assistance claims are infrequent at best”). Indeed, it
is often by design. E.g., Strickland, 466 U.S. at 689
(explaining that this standard “must be highly
deferential” because “[i]t is all too tempting for a
32
defendant to second-guess counsel’s assistance”).
Likewise, “governmental land-use regulation” is
supposed to “amount to a ‘taking’ ” only “under
extreme circumstances.” United States v. Riverside
Bayview Homes, Inc., 474 U.S. 121, 126 (1985) (citing
Penn Central); see, e.g., John D. Echeverria, Making
Sense of Penn Central, 23 UCLA J. Envt’l L. & Pol’y
171, 179 (2005) (identifying “numerous, diverse
reasons why a high level of economic impact should
be necessary to establish a regulatory taking”).
Petitioner has failed to provide any reason why that
feature is, in fact, a bug.
III. CERTIORARI
IS
UNWARRANTED
TO
REVIEW THE PANEL’S FACT-BOUND
DECISIONS CONCERNING THE RECORD.
Finally, Bridge asks this Court to review the Ninth
Circuit’s determination of various issues under Rule
50. These fact-bound questions plainly do not merit
certiorari.
There is no dispute that “whether a landowner has
been deprived of all economically viable use of his
property is a predominantly factual question * * * for
the jury” under the Seventh Amendment. City of
Monterey v. Del Monte Dunes at Monterey, Ltd., 526
U.S. 687, 720-721 (1999). Bridge seizes on this to
argue that the Ninth Circuit violated the Seventh
Amendment in granting JMOL for the Commission.
Pet. 30-31.
That is wrong. It has been “settled” for decades
that “there is no constitutional bar to an appellate
court granting [JMOL].” Neely v. Martin K. Eby
Constr. Co., 386 U.S. 317, 321-322 (1967); see Weisgram v. Marley Co., 528 U.S. 440, 449-450 (2000)
(explaining that Neely applies to JMOL). The issue
33
is not whether the Ninth Circuit violated Bridge’s
constitutional right to a jury trial, but whether it
correctly applied Rule 50(b).
That fact-bound question does not warrant certiorari. As required by Rule 50, the Ninth Circuit
evaluated all the evidence presented and concluded
that no reasonable jury could have ruled for Bridge.
See, e.g., Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Prods., Inc.,
530 U.S. 133, 149-150 (2000) (stating standard).
None of the five “[i]tems” Bridge identifies are to the
contrary.
As to the first and second items, Bridge’s owner
testified—without prompting—that there was at
least one permissible remaining special use for the
land, and Bridge’s expert witness testified that he
had not considered whether the land was suitable for
that, or any other of the permissible special uses
identified by the State. 2 SER 419, at 8; 2 SER 420,
at 6; supra, pp. 8, 22-23. Based on this, no reasonable jury could have concluded that no economically
beneficial uses of the land remained. Pet. App. 30a.
With respect to valuation, the Ninth Circuit cogently explained why no reasonable jury could have
credited Bridge’s economic-loss calculation. Bridge’s
expert estimated the land’s change in value as of the
voice vote, which occurred two years prior to the
actual taking. Supra, pp. 8, 10. That evidence thus
was so legally deficient that “the jury could not
properly have relied on it.” Pet. 32. And even assuming that timeline was correct, Bridge’s own
damages figures showed that its expert vastly overstated the actual diminution in value that occurred
as a result of the taking. Pet. App. 34a-36a.
34
The evidence concerning the sales agreement with
DW suffers from the same flaw: Because DW defaulted on the sale of the remaining 1,000 acres more
than a year before the taking occurred, the jury could
not have concluded that the Reversion Order caused
that default. Id. at 11a, 13a, 37a-38a.
Finally, the Ninth Circuit correctly determined
that, given the clear conditions in the Commission’s
various orders and the corresponding risk of reversion, no reasonable jury could have credited Bridge’s
inflated assessment of its investment-backed expectations. Id. at 40a-43a. In latching onto the phrase
“we do not see what this proves,” Bridge misses the
forest for the trees. Pet. 33. The Ninth Circuit used
that language to explain that, even if Bridge’s factual
assertions were correct, they were legally insufficient
to show that Bridge’s investment-backed expectations were reasonable. That is precisely the purpose
of JMOL.
35
CONCLUSION
The petition for a writ of certiorari should be
denied.
Respectfully submitted,
CLARE E. CONNORS
Attorney General
KIMBERLY T. GUIDRY
Solicitor General
EWAN C. RAYNER
Deputy Solicitor
General
WILLIAM J. WYNHOFF
DAVID D. DAY
Deputy Attorneys
General
STATE OF HAWAII
DEPARTMENT OF THE
ATTORNEY GENERAL
425 Queen Street
Honolulu, HI 96813
NEAL KUMAR KATYAL
Counsel of Record
MITCHELL P. REICH
DANIELLE DESAULNIERS
STEMPEL
HOGAN LOVELLS US LLP
555 Thirteenth St., N.W.
Washington, DC 20004
(202) 637-5600
neal.katyal@hoganlovells.com
Counsel for Respondent
NOVEMBER 2020
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