Lynette Hathon, et al. v. Michigan

During the last Term, this Court in DeVillier v. Texas (No. 22-913) granted certiorari to decide whether the Takings Clause itself authorizes a property owner to sue a State directly for just compensation when the legislature has not created a statutory cause of action. The Court ultimately declined to resolve the question because Texas law supplied an independent state common-law remedy, thus leaving for another day the central issue of whether the Takings Clause is judicially enforceable on its own terms. That question is now ripe. The Michigan Supreme Court has declared that the Fifth Amendment itself provides no cause of action in Michigan and barred inverse condemnation in full, requiring property owners to rely solely on a statutory scheme that affirmatively withholds and denies full just compensation. The federal question avoided in DeVillier is now squarely presented. The question presented is: Whether the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment is a self-executing stand-alone claim that permits property owners to sue a State directly for just compensation when the State otherwise mandates reliance on an inadequate statutory remedy.