AAF Files Amicus Brief Against State-Imposed Serfdom

Advancing American Freedom led a coalition of 16 other amici filing an amicus brief in Benedetti v. Marin County,  the “serf’s up!” case challenging Marin County, California’s attempt dictate the livelihood of a pair of brothers.  Arron and Arthur Benedetti, both plumbers, inherited 267 acres of land in Marin County from their father, a turkey farmer. After their father died and left the land to his sons, one brother attempted to build a home that was consistent with the county’s zoning regulations. However, the county refused to permit the construction of the home to proceed unless the brothers agreed to engage in or manage commercial agriculture on the land “in perpetuity.”

Time after time, the Supreme Court has held that the government cannot enforce unfair conditions on property use to achieve an outcome that it could not accomplish directly. Such a permitting requirement is inconsistent with this Court’s land use permitting case law and with millennia of Western thought about the fundamental right to property.

“The right to property extends back to the dawn of Western civilization and was understood by the founding generation to be central to liberty. Yet, Marin County, California returns property owners to the conditions of the medieval serfs,” said AAF General Counsel J. Marc Wheat. “The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that the government cannot use its regulatory power to condition the use of property to accomplish an otherwise illegal end. The Supreme Court should grant the petition for certiorari and say so again.”