When Can Issue Preclusion Bar Federal Court Review of Federal Takings Claims?
San Remo Hotel L.P. et al. v. City and County of San Francisco Docket No. 04-340 From: The Ninth Circuit Case at a Glance Land-use takings cases alleging deprivations of federal rights generally require balancing the rights of private property owners against a state’s power to adjust those rights for the public good. This takings case asks whether a property owner is entitled to have a federal court conduct that balancing after doctrines of abstention and ripeness required the property owner to litigate related state-law issues in state court first; or whether issue preclusion (which prevents relitigation of an issue already litigated) will bar the federal court from later deciding the federal claims. • Previewed by Mary Phelan D’Isa, a professor of law at the Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Lansing, Mich.
