Florida beachfront property owners should feel somewhat more secure about their private property rights in the wake of a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling, according to an attorney with the Pacific Legal Foundation.
The high court’s June 23 decision in the case of Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid found that a California labor law allowing union organizers access to agricultural employers’ property at certain times amounts to a taking of private property. Such takings are generally barred by the U.S. Constitution without just compensation.
“The decision certainly improves the constitutional protection for private property rights, especially against attempts to grant public access rights,” Damien Schiff, senior attorney with the foundation, told the Florida Record. Pacific Legal argued the case on behalf of plaintiff companies.
The California law gave union organizers access to employers’ property for as much as three hours per day for 120 days a year. The court’s finding that such access grants amount to a taking means that public agencies in Florida and elsewhere cannot create time-limited easements on private properties to give the public access to beaches without just compensation, Schiff said.
But the court also affirmed that there are exceptions to such compensation requirements based on “background principles” and local property laws and customs, he said. Public agencies can also gain access to private lands when health and safety or nuisance issues come into play, according to Schiff.
“There are certain principles that are so basic to private property law that it’s appropriate to consider that everyone’s property rights are subject to these inherent limitations,” he said.
In the growers’ original complaint, they argued that the California labor law violated their Fifth and 14th Amendment rights due to an uncompensated taking of private property.
The Pacific Legal Foundation called the high court’s ruling a major victory for property rights.
“(The) decision affirms that one of the most fundamental aspects of property is the right to decide who can and can’t access your property,” foundation senior attorney Joshua Thompson said in a prepared statement.
It would now be appropriate for the courts to enjoin California from enforcing the state law dealing with farmworker union organizing, according to Schiff.