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Columbia MHC East, LLC, et al. v. Melody Stewart, et al.

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, No. 19-3748 · judgment September 1, 2020

Certiorari denied · March 29, 2021
Pre-decision estimate: 4% cert probability

Before the decision, roughly the 4.1% base rate. The model weighted this up for a business petitioner, counsel who has filed here before, and a Sixth Circuit decision below.

Questions presented

The Northern District of Ohio Trial Court dismissed with prejudice, prior to the issuance of summons, the complaint seeking redress against official state acts of state court judges for the definitional taking of Petitioners’ property without just compensation. The Petitioners argue that state judges are state actors under the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution for the purposes of violations of the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution Takings and Just Compensation Clauses. The Sixth Circuit dismissed the case as moot because Petitioners voluntarily dismissed the nongovernmental defendants. THE QUESTIONS PRESENTED ARE:

  1. Can the official actions of state judges violate the Takings and Just Compensation Clauses of the Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution?

  2. Does the voluntary dismissal under Fed. R. App. P. 42(b) of non-state defendants during the appeal create a mootness that prevents the Sixth Circuit Court from deciding whether the official acts of state court judges violate the Fifth Amendment Takings and Just Compensation Clauses of the US Constitution?

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Harold Emmett Lucas Jr.
Lucas & Nowak LLP

For respondent
—

Case

Subject area
Due Process (estimated from the questions presented, in the Supreme Court Database’s categories)

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Order
Order list, March 29, 2021 · Certiorari denied

Proceedings

  1. Mar 29 2021
    Petition DENIED.
  2. Mar 10 2021
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 3/26/2021.
  3. Dec 31 2020
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due February 25, 2021)