The new lawsuit accuses Rhode Island of illegally seizing private land and usurping the authority of the state supreme court.in the Rhode Island Constitution. The lawsuit also claims the law violates the separation of powers by purporting to overrule the state supreme court’s interpretation of the demarcation line between public and private beachfront property.
Under that decision, land seaward of the MHT line was public property, while land landward of the MHT remained private property. The new law, however, grants the public access to private beach property landward ten feet of the newly defined “recognizable high tide line,” which is “the water’s surface level at the maximum height reached by a rising tide.”
This redefinition, the lawsuit argues, “confiscates Plaintiffs’ properties, as well as the property of other owners of shorefront property in Rhode Island,” without compensation, violating the U.S. and Rhode Island Constitutions. The lawsuit also argues the law’s attempt to overrule by statute the Rhode Island Supreme Court violates separation of powers. The state could only overrule the state supreme court, according to the lawsuit, by amending the state’s constitution.Redefining where public access begins on private property is unquestionably a taking. The basic foundation of property ownership is the right to exclude others from using your property.
They might still lose but the owners can make it an almighty pain in the butt for the State and test the true political strength of its intentions.