To me, the COVID-19 Pandemic feels like ages ago. But lawsuits arising from the pandemic are still making their way through the legal system. Just a few days ago, the Eleventh Circuit held that a county ordinance closing all public and private beaches during the early COVID-19 pandemic was a per se physical taking of beachfront owners’ property under the Fifth Amendment. Judge Lagoa's opinion is a refresher on takings law, including the differences between regulatory takings and physical takings (the line can be blurry). In short, there's "no COVID exception to the Takings Clause."
The opinion also has colorful details, including this sequence. A man is walking on his private beachfront property during the early days of the pandemic along with a family friend and their respective children. A lifeguard radios the Walton County Sheriff's Office to report them. Deputies arrive "almost immediately" and one tells the man and his party that, if they don't leave the beach, the deputies will arrest them. The man tells him he owns the property but the deputy says that doesn't matter. When the man and his friend turned to leave, the deputy asked for their names and told them that if police did "catch" them on his beach again, the police would take them "downtown."
"Downtown" doesn't get used enough as a stand-in for a police station. But as it turns out, the Walton County Sheriff's Office's main operations and jail are located at 10 Sheriff Circle in DeFuniak Springs, Florida, which is not a classic downtown business district.
Full opinion here.
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