Landowners Urge Ruling That Requires Government Officials to Respect Property Rights

Washington, DC— Brooks Realty & Advisory Group and Burgett Geothermal Greenhouses, Inc. today filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the U.S. Supreme Court case in Wilkes v. Robbins No.06-219. The Robbins case grows out of a dispute involving the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) attempts to extort a privately owned easement across the High Island Ranch, a cattle ranch in Wyoming owned by Frank Robbins. Both amici, Brooks Realty, a large land owner and developer in the West, and Burgett Geothermal Greenhouses, have a vested interest in insuring that the integrity of private property rights are vigorously protected, and that government officials be required to respect private property rights.

“If the Constitution stands for anything, it stands for the proposition that government officials cannot punish or retaliate against a citizen for exercising a right secured by the Constitution,” explained counsel for the amici, Nancie G. Marzulla, a partner in a Washington, D.C. law firm that handles high-profile property rights litigation. “In this case, the Tenth Circuit held that that the unconstitutional retaliation doctrine includes a citizen’s well-established Fifth Amendment right to exclude the government from his private property.”

After Mr. Robbins refused to voluntarily give an easement to the government, BLM officials launched a heavy-handed campaign to force Mr. Robbins to give the easement. BLM officials told Mr. Robbin’s neighbors that they were prepared to wage “a long war” that would “outlast” and “outspend” Mr. Robbins. Mr. Robbins, enduring years of such abuse, filed suit against the BLM officials responsible for the retaliatory behavior in their individual capacities, alleging that BLM officials had, among other things, engaged in a pattern of extortion and blackmail in violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), 18 U.S.C. §§ 1961–1968. Respondent also sought relief under Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics, 403 U.S. 388 (1971), for violations of his constitutional right to exclude the government from his property. The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on March 19, 2007. A decision in this case is expected by June 25, 2007.

Marzulla & Marzulla is a Washington, D.C.-based law firm with extensive litigation experience handling property rights litigation. For further information about this case or for a copy of the brief amici curiae filed in this case, call (202) 822-6760, or click here.

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