In a dramatic repudiation of 34 years of established precedent and a clear victory for private property owners, the United States Supreme Court has held in Knick v. Township of Scott, 588 U.S. ___ (2019), that a claim for a regulatory taking of private property pursuant to the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution may be filed directly in federal court without first exhausting state court remedies.

In its decision issued on June 21, 2019, the Court explicitly overruled its prior decision in Williamson County Regional Planning Commission v. Hamilton Bank of Johnson City, 473 U.S. 172 (1985), in which the Court had ruled that a property owner could not bring a takings claim in federal court until a state court had first denied the property owner's claim for just compensation under state law. In San Remo Hotel, L.P. v. City and County of San Francisco, 545 U.S. 323 (2005), however, the Court subsequently held that resolution of a claim for just compensation in state court has preclusive effect with respect to the ability to bring the claim in federal court, thereby effectively barring regulatory takings claims under the Fifth Amendment from ever being heard in federal court.

Contrary to the Court's reasoning in Williamson County, the decision in Knick v. Township of Scott stands for the proposition that the constitutional violation occurs, and the property owner acquires a constitutional right to compensation, at the point at which the property is taken by the government and not at the point at which the government denies payment of just compensation. A property owner therefore need not first file an action for just compensation in state court in order for the claim to be ripe for adjudication in federal court. The result of the Court's decision in Knick v. Township of Scott is that all claims for violation of the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment may now be brought directly in federal court without satisfying the prerequisite of first litigating such claims in state court.