Environmental Law & Animal Rights
Supporting Beach Access
McDermott filed an amicus brief on behalf of Surfrider Foundation in the Florida Department of Environmental Protection v. Stop the Beach Renourishment case pending before the United States Supreme Court, in which we argue to uphold beach access and public trust law in the state of Florida. The case will determine the constitutionality of Florida’s beach management program under the judicial takings doctrine and fundamentally will decide when the beach belongs to the public or whether it is private land after beach renourishment has occurred.
The petitioner is asking the Court to endorse the judicial takings doctrine to prevent the public from using the beach in front of the private property owner’s homes once the sandy beach has been “renourished.” Such a holding would contradict nearly 100 years of Supreme Court precedent and the Florida Supreme Court’s interpretation of the state’s common law that public beach access should be protected in the best interest of its citizens.
McDermott and the Surfrider Foundation argue that the state’s current regime properly allocates the beach access rights to the public after any beach management efforts have occurred. Specifically, the brief argues that the Florida beach access provisions of the beach management program are constitutional on their face, that the private property owner’s private rights are not affected by the Florida law, and that the judicial takings doctrine of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments is not applicable in this case. Furthermore, the Florida law at issue provides reasonable and appropriate measures to enable Florida to discharge its obligations to citizens of the state as trustee, under Article X of the Florida Constitution, of the public’s rights of access to the state’s lands to navigable waters.
“This amicus brief effort will undoubtedly continue to bolster the Surfrider Foundation’s comprehensive fight to defend beach access rights and will complement our legislation and litigation beach access efforts in Florida, Texas, New Jersey, Hawaii, and elsewhere around the nation,” says Angela Howe, Surfrider Foundation’s Legal Manager.
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