Patricia Ragland McGehee, et vir v. Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, Department of Highways

Mootness is a powerful but unacceptable tactic to evade federal requirements. In 1987 the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet studied extending Ring Road from US 62 to Western Kentucky Parkway and on to create an interchange with 1-65. This four-mile extension requires federal approvals. Road construction started before the trial began for rightof-way of parcel 12 owned by Pat Ragland. Hardin Circuit Court, with conflicts of interests, prevented deposing witnesses needed for a fair trial guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet used threats to bulldoze Pat Ragland's cherished historic home to obtain a settlement agreement to evade federal resolution on the merits. Now construction has been completed on Pat Ragland's historic property in a wellhead protection area without the required federal analysis to avoid or minimize adverse impacts. The Ninth Circuit found construction can be removed where federal requirements have been evaded but Kentucky Court of Appeals says no relief exists. Whether construction moots legal issues thereby evading federal requirements? Whether Hardin Circuit Court could enforce Kentucky Transportation Cabinet's proposed Settlement Agreement and Mutual Release from our U.S. District Court case? Whether denial of a fair trial guaranteed by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment is a structural violation of due process subject to reversal?