Anticipatory Remedies for Takings

INTRODUCTION Litigating takings claims under the U.S. Constitution involves pitfalls not encountered in ordinary constitutional litigation. With respect to takings claims against the federal government, just compensation can ordinarily be awarded only by the Court of Federal Claims (CFC), an "Article I" court located in Washington, D.C. (1) The CFC, however, has no authority to grant equitable or declaratory relief. (2) Consequently, claimants who wish to advance claims enforced by injunctions or declaratory judgments (for example, that the government action was arbitrary and capricious) must seek relief in an Article III court. This means claimants must often split their claims between two courts, giving rise to tricky questions of timing and preclusion. If they file in the wrong court, or get the sequencing wrong, consideration of the takings claim may be foreclosed. (3) Congress could clean up the mess by rewriting the relevant jurisdictional statutes, but has failed to act. (4) With respect to federal takings claims against state and local governments, the Supreme Court has held that such claims must be initially presented to state courts before they can be heard in federal court. (5) Any legal and factual issues that are resolved by the state courts, however, cannot be relitigated in a subsequent challenge in federal court. (6) Since federal and state takings clauses are generally interpreted the same way, this gives rise to what has been aptly called a "trap." (7) Although federal constitutional claims ordinarily can be tried in federal court under 42 U.S.C. [section] 1983, (8) takings claims, because they must be initially presented to state courts, are generally barred from being considered by any federal court other than the U.S. Supreme Court on certiorari from the final state court decision, which is rarely granted. This Essay argues that these pitfalls of litigating federal takings claims rest, in significant part, on an erroneous understanding about the scope of federal judicial authority under the Takings Clause. Starting from the premises that the Constitution does not prohibit takings but only requires that they be compensated, (9) and that compensation can be awarded only in a court in which the government has waived its sovereign immunity, (10) the Supreme Court has concluded--sometimes--that federal courts of general jurisdiction have no authority to consider takings claims as long as an action for compensation is available elsewhere. On other occasions however--and usually without acknowledging the inconsistency--the Court has reviewed takings claims without requiring that they first be submitted to the court having authority to award just compensation. The latter line of authority, although poorly theorized by the Court, is the correct one. There is no rule of law that prevents federal courts of general jurisdiction from adjudicating claims that arise under the Takings Clause --as long as they confine themselves to the question whether there has been a taking that entitles the owner to compensation. Given sovereign immunity, however, any actual award of compensation against the federal government or one of the states (as opposed to a local government) must be made by a court having jurisdiction to render such a judgment. The vehicle for allowing federal courts to consider takings claims, even if they have no authority to award just compensation, is what I call an anticipatory remedy. (11) The primary type of remedy I have in mind is a declaratory judgment, authorized by the Declaratory Judgment Act of 1934. (12) In appropriate circumstances, federal courts of general jurisdiction should be able to entertain claims that a federal or state government unit is proposing to engage in action that would constitute a taking, and if so, to issue a declaration that compensation would be required if the government persists. Anticipatory remedies could also take other forms besides declaratory judgments. …