Landowners Revive Takings Suit Over Private Beach Closures

Private beach owners are entitled to compensation from a Florida county after it enforced an ordinance that banned all beach use during the Covid-19 pandemic, a federal appeals court said.

Walton County violated the Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause when it prohibited the landowners from accessing their own beaches, the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit said in a Monday opinion reversing and remanding the lower court’s dismissal of that claim.

The lower court must consider how much “just compensation” the landowners are entitled to under the Takings Clause, Judge ...