Hillcrest Property, LLP v. Pasco County ( 2019 )

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[PUBLISH]
IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
________________________
No. 17-14789
________________________
D.C. Docket No. 8:10-cv-00819-SDM-TBM
HILLCREST PROPERTY, LLP,
Plaintiff - Appellee,
versus
PASCO COUNTY,
Defendant - Appellant.
________________________
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Middle District of Florida
________________________
(February 13, 2019)
Before TJOFLAT, MARCUS, and NEWSOM, Circuit Judges.
TJOFLAT, Circuit Judge:
The question before us is whether a litigant in this Circuit has a substantive-
due-process claim under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment
when the alleged conduct is the unlawful application of a land-use ordinance. The
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answer to that question is a resounding “no”—an answer that this Court delivered
in McKinney v. Pate, 20 F.3d 1550 (11th Cir. 1994) (en banc), 24 years ago and
has reaffirmed ever since. We held in McKinney that executive action never gives
rise to a substantive-due-process claim unless it infringes on a fundamental right.
A land-use decision is classic executive, rather than legislative, action—action that,
at least here, does not implicate a fundamental right under the Constitution.
I.
We start by reviewing the ordinance at issue. We then discuss the
application of that ordinance to Plaintiff Hillcrest Property and the specific events
that give rise to this appeal.
A.
Pasco County (“the County”) passed Ordinance No. 11-15 (“the Ordinance”)
“to preserve, protect, and provide for the dedication and/or acquisition of right-of-
way and transportation corridors that are necessary to provide future transportation
facilities and facility improvements to meet the needs of [projected] growth.” 1
Pasco County, Fla., Land Development Code ch. 900, § 901.2(A)(2). The County
found that “provision of an adequate transportation network is an essential public
1
A transportation corridor is “part of a network of transportation facilities and systems
which provide mobility between and access to businesses, homes, and other land uses throughout
the jurisdiction, region, and State.” Pasco County, Fla., Land Development Code ch. 900,
§ 901.2(A)(2).
2
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service.” Id. § 901.2(A)(2). The Ordinance aimed “to protect transportation
corridors from encroachment by structures or other development except under
special conditions.” Id. § 901.2(A)(6). It applies to all development of land that is
located on the County’s corridor-preservation map. Id. § 901.2(B)(1).
The corridor-preservation map includes all of the land that the County
believes will be required to adequately provide transportation, regardless of who
currently owns the land. When an entity seeks a development permit for land that
adjoins a transportation corridor, the County, as a “condition of approval,”
capitalizes on that need by requiring a right-of-way dedication, which is a
dedication by the entity to the County of lands “within the development site or
expanded development site which are within the transportation corridor.” Id.
§ 901.2(H)(1). The dedications must be “in accordance with the County Real
Estate Division requirements and free and clear of all liens and encumbrances.” Id.
Importantly, the land to be dedicated is “limited to the amount of land needed for
the planned transportation improvements.” 2 Id.
The Ordinance contemplates that disputes might arise between the entity and
the County and provides for waiver and appeal. An entity that believes that the
2
The amount of land needed is determined by the “Metropolitan Planning Organization
and Comprehensive Plan transportation element plans in effect at the time of dedication,” or if no
plans exist, by the “County-approved traffic study and collector/arterial spacing and design
standards for the development approval or development permit/order.” Id.
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County’s demanded dedication “exceeds the amount of land that is roughly
proportional to the transportation impacts to be generated by the proposed
development site” may apply to the development review committee for a
“dedication waiver.” Id. The procedures for seeking a waiver are largely the same
as those for seeking a variance. 3 Id. ch. 900, § 901.2(I)(2)(a). In its application for
a waiver, the entity must include the appraised value of the development site and
expanded development site, both before and after approval of the development; 4 a
traffic-impact study; and a list of transportation-mitigation measures taken or
required to be taken. Id.
The committee, upon finding that the “transportation requirement is not
roughly proportional to the transportation impacts of the proposed development
site or expanded development site” or that “any portion of the land required to be
dedicated . . . exceeds the amount of land that is roughly proportional to the
3
A variance is “limited relief” when “strict application” of the County’s code would
“create an unnecessary hardship” or would “render the land difficult to use because of some rare
and unique physical attribute of the property itself or some other factor unique to the property for
which the variance is requested.” Id. ch. 400, § 407.2(A)(1).
4
The development site is the “total area of the lot, tract, or parcel which is the subject of
an application for a Development Permit.” Id. § 901.2(D)(2). The expanded development site is
all development, parcels of land, lots, and tracts, including development, parcels
of land, lots, and tracts contiguous to or nearby the development site that are (1)
developed by the same or a related developer or landowner; or (2) developed as
part of the same zoning plan, preliminary plan, preliminary site plan, plat, or other
unified or common plan or development.
Id. § 901.2(D)(3).
4
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transportation impacts of the proposed development site or expanded development
site,” may proceed in one of two ways. Id. § 901.2(I)(4). One, it can authorize
compensation for the excess land. Id. Two, if it elects not to authorize
compensation, it must not require the entity to dedicate the excess land and must
permit it to use that land subject only to other generally applicable zoning
restrictions. Id.; see also id. § 901.2(I)(6).
The entity may appeal the committee’s decision to the Board of County
Commissioners. Id. § 901.2(I)(2)(a).
And this brings us to Hillcrest.
B.
Hillcrest Property owns 16.5 acres of undeveloped, commercially zoned land
in Pasco County, Florida.
In December 2006, Hillcrest applied to the County to develop its property
with a 83,000 square-foot retail shopping center and three commercial spaces. Just
over one year later, in February 2007, the County notified Hillcrest that pursuant to
the Ordinance, it would require the dedication of 50 feet for the future
development of State Road 52 (“the Road”) into four lanes. 5 The property at issue
shares a 1,400-foot border with the Road. Just a few months later, in May, the
5
As Hillcrest points out, however, the Comprehensive Plan designated the road and the
surrounding property as having an “acceptable level of roadway service” without the dedication.
5
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County then advised Hillcrest that a proposed shift in the Road by the Florida
Department of Transportation (“FDOT”) would require a dedication of an
additional 90 feet, bringing the total to 140 feet. The County was to compensate
Hillcrest for these additional 90 feet.
In July 2007, Hillcrest submitted a different proposed site plan that had no
improvement inside the 140-foot area. In so doing, Hillcrest reserved its rights to
object to the dedication of any land without compensation. The County approved
the preliminary site plan that August.
In June 2008, after having denied at least three of Hillcrest’s construction
plans for the site, the County approved a construction plan but conditioned
approval upon reaching an agreement on the dedication. Thereafter, the Magistrate
Judge tells us, things get hazy. What is clear is that Hillcrest and the County
continued to disagree on matters related to the dedication. And in January 2010,
the County supposedly told Hillcrest that it lacked the ability to compensate
Hillcrest the amount that it sought in compensation.
Hillcrest did not apply for a waiver or take any action in state court.
This suit ensued. Later in 2010, Hillcrest filed a seventeen-count complaint
in the District Court, as amended, alleging violations of both state and federal law.
The federal causes of action included claims under the Takings Clause of the Fifth
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Amendment, as incorporated by the Fourteenth Amendment, and facial and as-
applied substantive-due-process claims under the Fourteenth Amendment. 6
The crux of Hillcrest’s substantive-due-process claim is that the County
required the dedication “without . . . having first made an individualized
determination that the exaction was reasonably related both in nature and extent to
the traffic impacts of the proposed development,” “without . . . having clearly
demonstrated a reasonable connection or rational nexus between the need to 4-lane
[the Road] and the traffic generated by the development and between the exaction
and the benefits accruing to the development,” and
without . . . having first demonstrated that the need to widen [the
Road] to 4-lanes is substantial and demonstrably clear and present,
such that it definitely appears that Hillcrest’s proposed development
either forthwith or in the demonstrably immediate future will so
overburden [the Road] as to require its accelerated improvement, or
that the 4-laning of [the Road] is contemplated by the County or
FDOT for immediate improvement.
In July 2011, the parties filed cross motions for partial summary judgment
on numerous claims. These included motions by Hillcrest on the facial
substantive-due-process claim and the County on the as-applied claim. The
6
Teaser: the only claim that remains, the only claim at issue here, is an as-applied claim
that the Ordinance violates substantive due process, as guaranteed by the Fourteenth
Amendment.
The remaining counts have otherwise been resolved. The District Court dismissed some
and declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over others. The remainder were dismissed
with prejudice pursuant to a partial settlement agreement entered into by Hillcrest.
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Magistrate Judge, in March 2012 and upon referral from the District Court, issued
a report recommending that the Court grant both motions.
Just over one year later, in April 2013, the District Court granted summary
judgment for Hillcrest on the facial claim but denied summary judgment on the as-
applied claim (thus declining to follow the Magistrate Judge’s recommendation).
Pursuant to that decision, the Court permanently enjoined the County from
enforcing the portions of the Ordinance that are in dispute here.
The County appealed. A panel of this Court held that Hillcrest’s facial
substantive-due-process claim, which was the basis for the District Court’s
judgment, was barred by the statute of limitations. Hillcrest Prop., LLC v. Pasco
County, 754 F.3d 1279, 1283 (11th Cir. 2014). We accordingly vacated the
District Court’s order but expressed “no view as to the merits of Hillcrest’s
pending as-applied substantive due process claim.” Id.The litigation continued. In April 2016, the parties filed cross-motions for
summary judgment on Hillcrest’s as-applied substantive-due-process claim. Then,
about a year and a half later, the District Court—riding on the back of the
Magistrate Judge’s March 2012 Report and Recommendation—granted Hillcrest’s
motion. Hillcrest Prop., LLP v. Pasco County, No. 8:10-CV-819-T-23TBM, 2017
WL 4342347, at *1 (M.D. Fla. Sept. 29, 2017).
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The District Court summarily concluded that “application of a facially
unconstitutional ordinance necessarily establishes a meritorious as-applied due-
process claim.” Id. at *2. The Court entered an award of $1 in nominal damages
in favor of Hillcrest—the only relief that Hillcrest had sought on this claim. Id.
Importantly, the District Court also allowed Hillcrest to move for attorneys’
fees. Id. Indeed, as counsel acknowledged at oral argument, this case is currently
about nothing but attorneys’ fees. Let us explain. In January 2014, before this
Court issued its decision in the first appeal, the parties to this case, in addition to
the FDOT, entered into a partial settlement agreement. In exchange for a 100-foot
strip of Hillcrest’s property, the County and the FDOT would together compensate
Hillcrest $4.7 million. Hillcrest, pursuant to the agreement, forfeited nearly all of
its claims against the County, including its takings claim, but expressly reserved its
as-applied substantive-due-process claim. As this litigation has stretched nearly
nine years, we can only imagine that the fees Hillcrest seeks to collect are
significant.
This second appeal ensued.
Because the Court still faces a case or controversy within the meaning of
Article III, even if the controversy is only over attorneys’ fees, the parties have
properly invoked our jurisdiction. As such, we must decide the one claim that
lingers and put this case to rest.
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II.
We review de novo a district court’s grant of a motion for summary
judgement, “viewing all of the facts in the record in the light most favorable to the
non-movant.” United States ex rel. Phalp v. Lincare Holdings, Inc., 857 F.3d
1148, 1153 (11th Cir. 2017) (quoting Haynes v. McCalla Raymer, LLC, 793 F.3d
1246, 1249 (11th Cir. 2015)). We affirm upon a showing that there is “‘no genuine
dispute as to any material fact’ such that ‘the movant is entitled to judgment as a
matter of law.’” Id. (quoting Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a)).
III.
The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment provides, “No state
shall . . . deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of
law.” U.S. Const. amend. XIV, § 1.
The Clause “extends beyond the command of fair procedures” and
comprises a “substantive component as well.” County of Sacramento v. Lewis, 523
U.S. 833, 856, 118 S. Ct. 1708, 1721 (1998) (Kennedy, J., concurring). As we
describe below, substantive due process has two strands—one that protects against
deprivation of fundamental rights and one that protects against arbitrary legislation.
Neither strand offers Hillcrest relief here.
A.
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The Due Process Clause protects “fundamental rights found to be deeply
rooted in our legal tradition,” Washington v. Glucksberg, 521 U.S. 702, 722, 117 S.
Ct. 2258, 2268 (1997), “that is, rights that are ‘implicit in the concept of ordered
liberty,’” McKinney, 20 F.3d at 1556 (quoting Palko v. Connecticut, 302 U.S. 319,
325, 58 S. Ct. 149, 152 (1937)). Absent a “compelling state interest” and an
infringement “narrowly tailored” to serve that interest, the government may not
violate those rights “at all, no matter what process is provided.” Glucksberg, 521
U.S. at 721, 117 S. Ct. at 2268 (quoting Reno v. Flores, 507 U.S. 292, 302, 113 S.
Ct. 1439, 1447 (1993)). These rights include “most—but not all—of the rights
enumerated in the Bill of Rights” and “certain unenumerated rights (for instance,
the penumbral right of privacy[)].” McKinney, 20 F.3d at 1556.
Hillcrest does not allege denial of any fundamental right. As we made clear
in McKinney, fundamental rights in the constitutional sense do not include “state-
created rights.” 7 Id. at 1560. McKinney applies to Hillcrest’s land-use claim that
is the subject of this suit. We explained in DeKalb Stone, Inc. v. County of
DeKalb, 106 F.3d 956 (11th Cir. 1997) (per curiam), that “land use rights, as
7
The McKinney plaintiff had been a “full-time permanent employee” of the state who
was subsequently terminated. Id. at 1554. He alleged that his termination was “pretextual,” that
he was terminated “without reason,” and thus that his termination “violated his ‘constitutional
employment rights’ and consequently denied him substantive due process of law.” Id. at 1555.
We held that “[b]ecause employment rights are state-created rights and are not ‘fundamental’
rights created by the Constitution, they do not enjoy substantive due process protection.” Id. at
1560.
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property rights generally, are state-created rights.” Id. at 959; see also Greenbriar
Vill., L.L.C. v. City of Mountain Brook, 345 F.3d 1258, 1263 (11th Cir. 2003) (per
curiam) (noting that “state-created rights . . . include land-use rights”). Under
circuit precedent, then, this seems to be an open-and-shut case.
Hillcrest seeks to evade McKinney and its progeny, however, by
distinguishing between “old property,” which substantive due process supposedly
protects, and “new property,” which it does not.8 The problem, of course, aside
from the fact that DeKalb Stone and Greenbriar Village foreclose the argument
altogether, is that neither the Supreme Court nor this Court draws a distinction
between old property and new property.
In Board of Regents v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 92 S. Ct. 2701 (1972), the
Supreme Court observed, “Property interests, of course, are not created by the
Constitution. Rather they are created and their dimensions are defined by existing
rules or understandings that stem from an independent source such as state law.”
8
For readers unfamiliar with the concept of “new property,” see generally Charles A.
Reich, The New Property, 73 Yale L.J. 733 (1964). The core idea is that in a society “built
around entitlement,” Goldberg v. Kelly, 397 U.S. 254, 262 n.8, 90 S. Ct. 1011, 1017 n.8 (quoting
Charles A. Reich, Individual Rights and Social Welfare: The Emerging Legal Issues, 74 Yale
L.J. 1245, 1255 (1965) [hereinafter Social Welfare]), it is more appropriate “to regard welfare
entitlements as more like ‘property’ than a ‘gratuity,’” id. A classic example of new property is
government employment, which was the right at issue in Roth and McKinney. Other examples
are “subsidies to farmers and businessmen, routes for airlines and channels for television
stations; long term contracts for defense, space, and education; social security pensions for
individuals.” Goldberg, 397 U.S. at 262 n.8, 90 S. Ct. at 1017 n.8 (quoting Reich, Social
Welfare, supra, at 1255).
12
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Id. at 577, 92 S. Ct. at 2709; see also Barnhill v. Johnson, 503 U.S. 393, 398, 112
S. Ct. 1386, 1389 (1992) (“In the absence of any controlling federal law, ‘property’
and ‘interests in property’ are creatures of state law.”). Not only do Roth and its
progeny say nothing to limit the Roth principle to new property, but the Court has
extended the principle to old property on many occasions.9
Hillcrest also brings to our attention two decisions of the Supreme Court that
it believes supports its argument that land-use rights are fundamental rights:
Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management District, 570 U.S. 595, 133 S. Ct.
2586 (2013), and Lynch v. Household Finance Corp., 405 U.S. 538, 92 S. Ct. 1113(1972). Neither is apposite.
We start with Koontz, the case of more recent vintage. The unconstitutional-
conditions doctrine, which was Koontz’s focus, “vindicates the Constitution’s
enumerated rights by preventing the government from coercing people into giving
them up.” 570 U.S. at 604, 133 S. Ct. at 2594 (emphasis added). There, the
government would approve the plaintiff’s construction permit “only if” he agreed
9
For examples, see Phillips v. Wash. Legal Found., 524 U.S. 156, 164, 118 S. Ct. 1925,
1930 (1998) (principal in lawyer trust account); Delaware v. New York, 507 U.S. 490, 503, 113
S. Ct. 1550, 1558 (1993) (escheat claims); Lucas v. S.C. Coastal Council, 505 U.S. 1003, 1029,
112 S. Ct. 2886, 2900 (1992) (lake bed); Ruckelshaus v. Monsanto Co., 467 U.S. 986, 1003–04,
104 S. Ct. 2862, 2872 (1984) (trade secrets); Parratt v. Taylor, 451 U.S. 527, 529 n.1, 101 S. Ct.
1908, 1910 n.1 (1981), overruled on other grounds by Daniels v. Williams, 474 U.S. 327, 106 S.
Ct. 662 (1986) (hobby materials); Webb’s Fabulous Pharmacies, Inc. v. Beckwith, 449 U.S. 155,
160, 101 S. Ct. 446, 450 (1980) (principal in court registry); Memphis Light, Gas & Water Div.
v. Craft, 436 U.S. 1, 9, 98 S. Ct. 1554, 1560 (1978) (creditor rights).
13
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to various concessions. Id. at 601, 133 S. Ct. at 2593. He declined. Id. at 602, 133
S. Ct. at 2593. There was, of course, no takings claim because “[w]here the permit
is denied and the condition is never imposed, nothing has been taken.” Id. at 608,
133 S. Ct. at 2597. But the problem is obvious: “[b]y conditioning a building
permit on the owner’s deeding over a public right-of-way, for example, the
government can pressure an owner into voluntarily giving up property for which
the Fifth Amendment would otherwise require just compensation.” Id. at 605, 133
S. Ct. at 2594. The “unconstitutional conditions doctrine prohibits” “[e]xtortionate
demands of this sort” because they “frustrate the Fifth Amendment right to just
compensation.” Id. at 605, 133 S. Ct. at 2595.
Koontz makes clear that an unconstitutional-conditions claim is its own
constitutional cause of action that is “predicated” on some other enumerated
constitutional right—in Koontz’s case “predicated on the Takings Clause.” Id. at
610, 133 S. Ct. at 2597.
Koontz thus does no work for Hillcrest here. Hillcrest did not assert an
enumerated right allegedly infringed by an unconstitutional condition; it sued
under substantive due process, which is unenumerated. Indeed, because the right is
unenumerated, the “guideposts for responsible decisionmaking in this unchartered
area are scarce and open-ended.” Glucksberg, 521 U.S. at 720, 117 S. Ct. at 2267(quoting Collins v. City of Harker Heights, 503 U.S. 115, 125, 112 S. Ct. 1061,
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1068 (1992)). For precisely that reason, the Court has instructed us, pursuant to
“judicial self-restraint,” to “exercise the utmost care whenever we are asked to
break new ground in this field.” Collins, 503 U.S. at 125, 112 S. Ct. at 1068. In
short, Koontz does not apply to substantive due process, as it does to the Takings
Clause or to other enumerated constitutional rights.
We now turn to Hillcrest’s other precedent.
Lynch, for its part, states only that the “[a]cquisition, enjoyment, and
alienation of property” constitute “basic civil rights.” 405 U.S. at 544, 92 S. Ct. at
1118. As we explained in DeKalb Stone, however, though “property rights have
been important common law rights throughout history,” “common law rights are
not equivalent to fundamental rights, which are created only by the Constitution
itself.” 106 F.3d at 959 n.6. It is telling, moreover, that the “basic civil rights”
referenced in Lynch stem not from the Constitution but from the Civil Rights Act
of 1866. 405 U.S. at 543–44, 92 S. Ct. at 1117–18. So Lynch, too, fails to bridge
the gap between land-use rights and substantive due process.
B.
There is a second strand to substantive due process, one on which Hillcrest
hangs its case.
When “state-created rights are infringed by a ‘legislative act,’ the
substantive component of the Due Process Clause generally protects that person
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from arbitrary and irrational government action.” Kentner v. City of Sanibel, 750
F.3d 1274, 1279−80 (11th Cir. 2014) (quoting Lewis v. Brown, 409 F.3d 1271,
1273 (11th Cir. 2005) (per curiam)); see also Palko, 302 U.S. at 327, 58 S. Ct. at
153 (“[T]he legislative judgment, if oppressive and arbitrary, may be overridden by
the courts.”).
But not all state action is legislative. In McKinney, we emphasized the
“crucial . . . distinction between ‘legislative’ acts and ‘non-legislative’ or
‘executive’ acts.” 20 F.3d at 1557 n.9 (citation omitted). Whereas legislative acts
“generally apply to a larger segment of—if not all of—society,” executive acts
“characteristically apply to a limited number of persons (and often to only one
person).” Id. Examples of the former are “laws and broad-ranging executive
regulations”; examples of the latter are “ministerial or administrative activities of
members of the executive branch.”10 Id.
Hillcrest’s assertion that this Court recognizes a substantive-due-process
right that “protects essential rights in real property from arbitrary, capricious and
unreasonable land use regulation” fails to appreciate the McKinney distinction.
Hillcrest, seeking to overcome the distinction, cites Village of Arlington Heights v.
10
Hillcrest argues that this language is dicta because “McKinney was decided on the basis
that Ms. McKinney’s employment rights were state-created and therefore not protected by
substantive due process.” Hillcrest is wrong: McKinney required us to draw this distinction
because substantive due process does prohibit arbitrary legislative action, even if that action is
deprivation of a state-created right.
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Metropolitan Housing Development Corp., 429 U.S. 252, 97 S. Ct. 555 (1977),
which alluded to the “right to be free of arbitrary or irrational zoning actions,” id.
at 263, 97 S. Ct. at 562. But this snippet does not advance Hillcrest’s position.
First, the cited language is pure dicta; Arlington Heights, as every law student
learns, concerns equal protection, not substantive due process. Indeed, the Court—
in the very next sentence—explained that the “heart of this litigation,” id. at 263,
97 S. Ct. at 562, was the plaintiff’s equal-protection claim, which served as the
basis for the Court’s analysis. See id. Second, the Court’s citations for the quoted
language are to police-power cases, each of which involved challenges to
legislation, not to executive action. See Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co.,
272 U.S. 365, 384, 47 S. Ct. 114, 117 (1926) (ordinance); Nectow v. City of
Cambridge, 277 U.S. 183, 185, 48 S. Ct. 447, 447 (1928) (same); Village of Belle
Terre v. Boraas, 416 U.S. 1, 3, 94 S. Ct. 1536, 1538 (1974) (same). 11 Arlington
11
Washington ex rel. Seattle Title & Trust Co. v. Roberge, 278 U.S. 116, 49 S. Ct. 50(1928), another decision of the Supreme Court that Hillcrest flags, is yet another police-power
case. The Court applied the rule that “[l]egislatures may not, under the guise of the police power
impose restrictions that are unnecessary and unreasonable upon the use of private property or the
pursuit of useful activities.” 278 U.S. at 121, 49 S. Ct. at 52. Put differently, legislation, to be
legitimate, must “bear a substantial relation to the public health, safety, morals, or general
welfare.” Id. at 121, 49 S. Ct. at 51–52 (quoting Nectow, 277 U.S. at 188, 48 S. Ct. at 448).
Hillcrest cites a single line within the opinion: “The right of the trustee to devote its land
to any legitimate use is property within the protection of the Constitution.” Id. at 121, 49 S. Ct.
at 52. But that language has no significance here when the entire paragraph is devoted to
discussing whether the enactment at issue accords with the police power. See id. (evaluating the
constitutionality of the statute in light of “public health, safety, morals or general welfare” and
the “public interest”).
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Heights thus tells us nothing about Hillcrest’s claim here—a substantive-due-
process violation for allegedly arbitrary executive action. 12
In short, the McKinney distinction between legislative and executive action
is alive and well and as we explain below, fatal to Hillcrest’s substantive-due-
process claim in this case. First, the nature of the pleadings reveals that Hillcrest
challenges the application of the Ordinance, not anything inherent in its design. As
such, the County’s actions are characterized as executive, not legislative. Second,
and relatedly, Hillcrest pleads an as-applied violation of substantive due process.
But as-applied violations are always executive because the executive is responsible
for applying, or enforcing, the law. 13
1.
12
Hillcrest also proffers six decisions of this Circuit that purportedly identify a
fundamental right to use property in a particular manner. Of the six cases, three pre-date
McKinney. See Reserve, Ltd. v. Town of Longboat Key, 17 F.3d 1374 (11th Cir. 1994); Corn v.
City of Lauderdale Lakes, 997 F.2d 1369 (11th Cir. 1993); Eide v. Sarasota County, 908 F.2d
716 (11th Cir. 1990). We thus do not discuss these cases at all. The remaining three cases
involved substantive-due-process challenges to legislative acts. See New Port Largo, Inc. v.
Monroe County, 95 F.3d 1084, 1091 (11th Cir. 1996) (reasoning that the zoning decision at issue
was a “legislative judgment[]”); Restigouche, Inc. v. Town of Jupiter, 59 F.3d 1208, 1214 (11th
Cir. 1995) (evaluating under a two-part test whether the “legislation” at issue could have served a
legitimate purpose and whether the “legislation” could have furthered that purpose). Though the
Restigouche plaintiff brought an as-applied substantive-due-process challenge, 59 F.3d at 1211,
we made clear that we only “assumed arguendo some sort of vested right,” id. at 1215 n.7. So
too in Villas of Lake Jackson, Ltd. v. Leon County, 121 F.3d 610 (11th Cir. 1997), where we
assumed that the challenge was to a “legislative rather than an executive act.” Id. at 614.
13
To be clear, nothing about our holding limits a person’s ability to bring an as-applied
substantive-due-process challenge to executive action that infringes on fundamental rights. We
today speak only about state-created rights.
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The deprivation alleged in this case is quintessentially executive action, as
our prior land-use cases reveal.
In Lewis v. Brown, 409 F.3d 1271 (11th Cir. 2005) (per curiam), for
example, a family had purchased property that was zoned for agricultural use. Id.
at 1272. After purchasing it, the family applied to rezone the property for
residential use, use that would have been “consistent with the County’s land-use
plan.” Id. The government denied the family’s application. Id. The family
subsequently brought a substantive-due-process claim and alleged, as does
Hillcrest here, that the decision was “arbitrary and capricious.” Id. We affirmed
the District Court’s grant of the motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim. Id. at
1274. We reasoned that the decision was a “textbook ‘executive act’” given that
the action affected “only a limited class of persons, namely, the [plaintiffs].” Id. at
1273.
So too here. The whole of Hillcrest’s challenge, as alleged in their Amended
Complaint, is that the County “has applied [the Ordinance] . . . so as to require
Hillcrest to set aside or dedicate a substantial portion of the [p]roperty for the
benefit of the public for future use as a right of way.” Said in McKinney-speak, the
harm that allegedly results from the County’s action is harm only to Hillcrest.
Hillcrest argues that the County’s action here was “legislative or quasi-
legislative in nature.” It cites Kelo v. City of New London, 545 U.S. 469, 125 S. Ct.
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2655 (2005), which reasoned that in the context of eminent domain, “[o]nce the
question of the public purpose has been decided, the amount and character of land
to be taken for the project and the need for a particular tract to complete the
integrated plan rests in the discretion of the legislative branch.” Id. at 489, 125 S.
Ct. at 2668 (quoting Berman v. Parker, 348 U.S. 26, 35–36, 75 S. Ct. 98, 104
(1954)). But Kelo only strengthens the decision that we today lay down. There,
the city had passed a “development plan” that was intended to “revitalize an
economically distressed city.” 14 Id. at 472, 125 S. Ct. at 2658. The Court
explained that the “takings . . . would be executed pursuant to a ‘carefully
considered’ development plan.” Id. at 478, 125 S. Ct. at 2661 (citation omitted)
(emphasis added). What Hillcrest fails to grasp is that the development plan in
Kelo, like the Ordinance here, was legislative, but the application of that plan, like
the application of the Ordinance here to Hillcrest, was executive.15
2.
14
The plan, which obtained “state-level approval,” was created by a “private nonprofit
entity established some years earlier to assist the [c]ity in planning economic development.” Id.
at 473, 125 S. Ct. at 2659. The petitioner argued that the condemnation of her home violated the
“‘public use’ restriction in the Fifth Amendment.” Id. at 475, 125 S. Ct. at 2660.
15
The same problem plagues the other cases that Hillcrest brings to our attention. The
Supreme Court in Rindge Co. v. Los Angeles County, 262 U.S. 700, 43 S. Ct. 689 (1923), noted
that the “necessity and expediency of the taking . . . are legislative questions, no matter who may
be charged with their decision.” Id. at 709, 43 S. Ct. at 693 (quoting Bragg v. Weaver, 251 U.S.
57, 58, 40 S. Ct. 62, 63 (1919)). These cases involved the legislative authorization to take, not
the taking itself. Id. at 702, 43 S. Ct. at 691; Bragg, 251 U.S. at 58, 40 S. Ct. at 63. Hillcrest
here does not challenge the Ordinance itself but a specific application of the Ordinance—namely,
to Hillcrest.
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There is a more fundamental reason why, under our precedent, Hillcrest
lacks a substantive-due-process claim: it brings an as-applied challenge.16 Because
the role of the executive is to apply, or to enforce, statutes, any as-applied
challenge necessarily implicates executive, rather than legislative, action. The
Constitution, for example, requires the President to “take Care that the Laws be
faithfully executed.” U.S. Const. art. II, § 3. Cf. Springer v. Philippine Islands,
277 U.S. 189, 202, 48 S. Ct. 480, 482 (1928) (“Legislative power, as distinguished
from executive power, is the authority to make laws, but not to enforce them or
appoint the agents charged with the duty of such enforcement. The latter are
executive functions.”).
We drew this distinction between facial and as-applied challenges in
Kentner v. City of Sanibel, 750 F.3d 1274 (11th Cir. 2014). There, we reasoned
that the plaintiffs’ substantive-due-process challenge was to a “legislative act”
because the plaintiffs challenged the ordinance “on its face rather than contesting a
specific zoning or permit decision made under the auspices of the [o]rdinance.”
750 F.3d at 1280. As such, we deemed it not barred by McKinney. We implied in
Kentner what we now make clear today: an as-applied challenge to a land-use
16
At oral argument, counsel for Hillcrest reiterated the nature of its challenge: “The
bottom line here, Judges, is, ‘Can you codify extortionate leveraging of the police power in an
ordinance and then attempt to enforce it?’ And our position is that the attempt to enforce it is a
violation of substantive due process.” Oral Argument at 23:30, Hillcrest Prop., LLP v. Pasco
County, ___ F.3d ___ (2019) (No. 17-14789), https://goo.gl/sq4Bkv (emphasis added).
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statute never gives rise to a substantive-due-process claim when the sole basis for
the challenge is allegedly arbitrary behavior that does not infringe on a
fundamental right.
3.
We cannot be clearer on this point: regardless of how arbitrarily or
irrationally the County has acted with respect to Hillcrest, Hillcrest has no
substantive-due-process claim. Cf. Greenbriar Vill., L.L.C., 345 F.3d at 1263(“[N]on-legislative deprivations of state-created rights, which would include land-
use rights, cannot support a substantive due process claim, not even if the plaintiff
alleges that the government acted arbitrary and irrationally. Constitutional due
process is satisfied for these deprivations when proper procedures are employed.”
(citations omitted)).
IV.
For these reasons, the application of the Ordinance to Hillcrest does not give
rise to a substantive-due-process claim. Because Hillcrest lacks a viable cause of
action, judgment as a matter of law is appropriate. The District Court’s grant of
summary judgment is therefore REVERSED.
SO ORDERED.
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NEWSOM, concurring in the judgment:
About 20 years ago now, an insightful (and hilarious) lawyer friend of mine
said to me—and because this is a family show, I’ll clean it up a bit—“Not
everything that s[tink]s violates the Constitution.” If ever a case proved the truth
of that little nugget, this is it.
I
A
First things first. What happened to Hillcrest here was pretty doggone
s[tink]y. In short: Hillcrest is the fee-simple owner of 16.5 acres of commercially
zoned land that fronts State Road 52 in Pasco County, Florida. Desiring to put the
land to good (and presumably profitable) use, Hillcrest sought a permit to develop
its property to include a retail shopping center and additional commercial space.
Despite the fact that the County’s own “Comprehensive Plan” described State
Road 52 and the adjacent areas as having an “acceptable level of roadway surface,”
Hillcrest was told that in order to obtain the permit, it would have to give the
County a 50-foot strip of land—70,000 square feet total—to accommodate the
road’s future widening. Hillcrest accordingly revised its site plan to account for
the 50-foot corridor. Just a few months later, though, having been notified that the
Florida DOT might want to shift the road’s path, the County demanded that
Hillcrest hand over an additional 90-foot band, bringing the required dedication’s
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grand total to 196,000 square feet—4.5 acres, more than a quarter of Hillcrest’s
total parcel. Over the course of the next few years, the parties continued to haggle,
the County continued to deny Hillcrest’s construction permits, and Hillcrest—
presumably feeling like it was trapped in some Ayn-Rand-ian nightmare—
eventually sued.
Sounds like a job for the Takings Clause, right? That provision states that
“private property” may not be “taken for public use . . . without just
compensation,” U.S. Const. amend. V, and has been interpreted to prohibit the
government from conditioning a development permit on a land exaction absent
solid proof that the exaction both (1) bears an “essential nexus” and (2) “is related
both in nature and extent” to the proposed development’s impact. See Nollan v.
California Coastal Comm’n, 483 U.S. 825, 834–37 (1987); Dolan v. City of
Tigard, 512 U.S. 374, 391 (1994). Unsurprisingly, in its original complaint,
Hillcrest alleged (among other causes of action) takings claims under both the
United States and Florida Constitutions, asserting that the “required set aside and
dedication amount[ed] to an uncompensated taking of private property for public
use requiring the County to pay Hillcrest just compensation.” For support,
Hillcrest cited Nollan and Dolan as indicative of the Supreme Court’s “concern
with,” among other things, the “extortionate leveraging of the police power by
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local government to obtain concessions from landowners that the government
would otherwise have to pay for itself.”
Hillcrest’s takings-based claims, though, never saw the light of day.
Hillcrest initially moved to abate its federal takings claim, acknowledging that it
first had to “pursue adequate state procedures for seeking just compensation” under
Williamson County Regional Planning Commission v. Hamilton Bank, 473 U.S.
172 (1985). Then, in conjunction with that exhaustion-of-remedies process,
Hillcrest filed an amended federal complaint from which it dropped its Fifth
Amendment takings claim. Several years later, the parties entered into a partial
settlement agreement pursuant to which Pasco County agreed to pay Hillcrest $4.7
million to resolve the takings-based claims.
Meanwhile, the federal-court litigation—minus the Takings Clause
allegation—chugged ahead, with Hillcrest continuing to press what, to my mind,
was the exact same claim parading under a different banner: “substantive due
process.” And the district court let it. By permitting Hillcrest to invoke
substantive due process to pursue what was in substance a Takings Clause claim—
a claim that, for its own reasons, Hillcrest had dropped from the lawsuit and would
eventually settle for good money—the district court clearly erred.
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B
The district court was (understandably) disgusted by the County’s treatment
of Hillcrest. Beginning with the summary judgment hearing, the district court
expressed profound “discomfort” with Pasco County’s conduct. It just “doesn’t sit
well,” the court said. “You look at this and it’s disturbing and you think, this is
just not right. Something—somewhere this is flawed, whether [or not] you know,
the theories happen to fit it.” In the end, the court concluded: “As I sit here, I don’t
quite know whether [the case] fits in any of these [constitutional] slots that [the
lawyers] have laid out, but I’m not sure it shouldn’t . . . . And I’m not sure that if
it doesn’t fit into one of them that I’m not going to find the one it’s closest to and
give the Circuit Court of Appeals an opportunity to say that it should land there.”
Memorializing its disgust—and reasoning—in a written order, the district court
held:
Another judge might find . . . this opinion inexact in this or that
particular of constitutional law. Nonetheless, this Ordinance
[pursuant to which the County demanded the exaction] is an
unmistakable, abusive, and coercive misapplication of governmental
power, perpetrated to cynically evade the Constitution. The
Ordinance cannot stand, whether for the precise reasons stated here or
for a related reason.
Translation: What Pasco County did here s[tink]s to high heaven; ergo, it must be
unconstitutional—if not under the Takings Clause, because Hillcrest’s takings-
based claim had evaporated with its amended complaint, then on some (any) other
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basis. The basis that the district court chose—the constitutional “slot[]” into which
it slid Hillcrest’s case—was substantive due process.
That’s not how constitutional law works. Whatever other role substantive-
due-process doctrine may play, it is not a stand-in for a failed, forfeited, or (even
worse) settled Takings Clause claim. The district court should have seen this case
for what it is: a not-so-veiled attempt to revive its dropped (and eventually settled)
Takings Clause claim and to infuse it with new substantive-due-process life. The
fact that Hillcrest sought to do so—and that the district court let it, relying on
substantive-due-process doctrine as a failsafe for remedying actions that “do[n’t]
sit well” or that are “just not right,” speaks volumes about the doctrine’s
slipperiness.
C
1
Substantive due process, of course, has been criticized by a wide variety of
people for a wide variety of reasons. First, and most obviously, there’s the pesky
issue of constitutional text. As John Hart Ely colorfully remarked, “there is simply
no avoiding the fact that the word that follows ‘due’ is ‘process.’” John Hart Ely,
Democracy and Distrust: A Theory of Judicial Review 18 (1980). “[W]e
apparently need periodic reminding,” he said—providing the reminder—“that
‘substantive due process’ is a contradiction in terms—sort of like ‘green pastel
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redness.’” Id. Others—from one end of the jurisprudential spectrum to the
other—have made the same basic observation. See, e.g., United States v. Carlton,
512 U.S. 26, 39 (1994) (Scalia, J., concurring in the judgment) (calling substantive
due process “an oxymoron”); Laurence H. Tribe, American Constitutional Law §
7-5, at 1317 (3d ed. 2000) (referring to “the textual gymnastics arguably necessary
to find protection of substantive rights in a provision whose words seem most
apparently concerned with process”).
Second, there’s the matter of history. The best indications are that those
who framed the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause envisioned it as a
guarantee (as its phrasing and moniker indicate) of fair process, not a font of
substantive rights. During the floor debates on the Fourteenth Amendment,
Congressman John Bingham—the principal draftsman of the Amendment’s
Section 1—responded to a question about the meaning of the Due Process Clause:
“[T]he courts have settled that long ago, and the gentleman can go and read their
decisions.” Cong. Globe, 39th Cong., 2d Sess. 1089 (1866). The most prominent
of those “decisions” was undoubtedly Murray’s Lessee v. Hoboken Land &
Improvement Co., 59 U.S. (18 How.) 272 (1855), which the Supreme Court
decided in 1856 and which, just a decade later, was the definitive statement on the
meaning of the phrase “due process of law.” The Court there construed the
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materially identical terms of the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause solely in
procedural terms. Specifically, the Court said:
To what principles, then, are we to resort to ascertain whether this
process, enacted by congress, is due process? To this the answer must
be twofold. We must examine the constitution itself, to see whether
this process be in conflict with any of its provisions. If not found to
be so, we must look to those settled usages and modes of proceeding
existing in the common and statute law of England, before the
emigration of our ancestors . . . .
Id. at 276–77 (emphasis added); see also, e.g., Akhil Reed Amar, The Bill of
Rights: Creation and Reconstruction 173 (1998) (describing Murray’s Lessee as a
“procedural due process” case).
Third, pedigree. At least in the Supreme Court, substantive-due-process
doctrine traces its roots to the fateful—and repugnant—decision in Dred Scott v.
Sandford, 60 U.S. (19 How.) 393 (1857). Invalidating the Missouri Compromise
as violative of the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause, the Court observed that
“an Act of Congress which deprives a citizen of the United States of his liberty or
property, merely because he came himself or brought his property”—which was to
say, another human being—“into a particular Territory of the United States, and
who had committed no offen[s]e against the laws, could hardly be dignified with
the name of due process of law.” Id. at 450. Tellingly, the Court voiced no
particular objection to the procedures by which Congress had enacted the Missouri
Compromise; rather, it simply concluded that, somehow or another, the substance
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of the act must have infringed a white man’s “right” to own a black man. Yuck.
Fast forward about half a century and you arrive at a second pillar of substantive-
due-process jurisprudence, Lochner v. New York, 198 U.S. 45 (1905). There, the
Court invalidated a state statute establishing maximum work hours for bakers as
violating the “general right to make a contract in relation to . . . business.” Id. at
53. Again, the procedures employed in enacting the law were just fine; even so,
the Court held that the law was substantively unreasonable and, therefore, that it
simply had to be unconstitutional. Double yuck.
Finally, in addition to the textual, historical, and ancestral difficulties that
plague modern substantive-due-process jurisprudence, the Supreme Court has also
emphasized a very real practical problem: The “guideposts for responsible
decisionmaking in this unchartered area are scarce and open-ended.” Collins v.
City of Harker Heights, 503 U.S. 115, 125 (1992). Put simply, there is always a
risk that a court asked to recognize a substantive-due-process violation—but
without traditional interpretive guardrails—will simply read into the Constitution
its own view of good government. Accordingly, the Supreme Court has
emphasized, “[t]he doctrine of judicial self-restraint requires us to exercise the
utmost care whenever we are asked to break new ground in this field.” Id.30
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2
One important way in which the Supreme Court has set out to “restrain[]”
substantive-due-process decisionmaking—significant for present purposes—is by
holding, repeatedly, that “[w]here a particular Amendment ‘provides an explicit
textual source of constitutional protection’ against a particular sort of government
behavior, ‘that Amendment, not the more generalized notion of “substantive due
process,” must be the guide for analyzing these claims.’” Albright v. Oliver, 510
U.S. 266, 273–74 (1994) (plurality) (quoting Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386,
395 (1989)). Put slightly differently, “if a constitutional claim is covered by a
specific provision”—the Fourth Amendment, the Eighth Amendment, etc.—“the
claim must be analyzed under the standard appropriate to that specific provision,
not under the rubric of substantive due process.” United States v. Lanier, 520 U.S.
259, 272 n.7 (1997). More specifically, and more pertinently here, substantive due
process “cannot” “do the work of the Takings Clause.” Stop the Beach
Renourishment, Inc. v. Florida Dep’t of Envtl. Prot., 560 U.S. 702, 721 (2010)
(plurality) (citing Albright and Graham).
Bottom line: Whatever its proper office—and, as noted, there’s plenty of
debate about that—substantive due process does not exist to duplicate (or insure, as
it were) claims appropriately pursued under other constitutional guarantees. If a
claim properly fits within a specific constitutional provision, then it must rise or
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fall on the doctrine that applies to that provision. If (for whatever reason) the
claim can’t proceed in its natural textual and doctrinal “home,” then, well, it can’t
proceed. The claimant can’t just repackage it in substantive-due-process garb and
attempt to relitigate it.
In that respect at least, this case represents substantive due process at its
abject worst. At its core, this has always—always—been a Fifth Amendment
Takings Clause case. Hillcrest contests Pasco County’s insistence that, as the price
for developing its roadside parcel, it surrender 196,000 square feet—some 4½
acres—of its land. Put simply, Hillcrest’s is a “land-use exaction” claim—which,
as the Supreme Court has clarified, is one of the quintessential means by which “a
plaintiff [can] challenge a government regulation as an uncompensated taking of
private property” under the Fifth Amendment. Lingle v. Chevron U.S.A., Inc., 544
U.S. 528, 548 (2005).
But don’t just take my word for it. Listen to how the magistrate judge and
the district court described Hillcrest’s arguments. To begin, the magistrate judge—
even while resolving the case on substantive-due-process grounds—summarized
the nub of Hillcrest’s position as based in Takings Clause principles:
Hillcrest maintained that the dedication requirement resulted in an
unconstitutional taking of its property and that it should be
compensated for the 140-foot clear space it is required to dedicate to
the County in exchange for its development permit/order. When the
parties failed to resolve the dispute over compensation, this suit was
filed.
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R. & R., Doc. 168 at 14 (emphasis added). Explaining what he viewed as the
constitutional infirmity, the magistrate said that Ordinance No. 11-15 “compelled
[landowners] to surrender private property without compensation as a condition of
development approval or permitting.” Id. at 26 (emphasis added). The
Ordinance’s “dedication provision,” he continued, “is no mere regulation of land
use but rather a calculated measure by the County to avoid the burdens and costs of
eminent domain and take private property without just compensation.” Id. at 26–
27 (emphasis added). The Ordinance, the magistrate held, “commands that certain
landowners be forced ‘to bear the public burdens which, in all fairness and justice,
should be borne by the public as a whole,’ the very thing the Takings Clause of the
United States Constitution and the equivalent provision of the Florida Constitution
are intended to prevent.” Id. at 27–28 (emphasis added).
Tellingly, throughout his report—and to support his conclusion that the
Ordinance violates substantive due process—the magistrate judge relied on the
Supreme Court’s decisions in Nollan v. California Coastal Commission, 483 U.S.
825 (1987), and Dolan v. City of Tigard, 512 U.S. 374 (1994), both of which, as
already explained, addressed the constitutionality of land-use exactions under the
Takings Clause. See Doc. 168 at 15–16, 17, 24–25, 27, 29. The magistrate judge
said (vaguely) that “[w]hile Nollan and Dolan do not set forth the applicable
standard”—presumably because they are Takings Clause cases—they “help inform
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the due process analysis.” Id. at 25. Notably, however, when it came to explaining
precisely why the Ordinance violated substantive-due-process principles, the
magistrate judge reverted back to a takings-based analysis: “[T]he scheme itself
violates due process because it is inconsistent with, and permits the County to
avoid its obligations under, the Takings Clause of the Fifth and Fourteenth
Amendments of the United States Constitution and Article X, Section 6 of the
Florida Constitution.” Id. at 29 (emphasis added).
The district court’s decision delivered more of the same. On the very first
page of its order, that court criticized Ordinance No. 11-15 as part of “a most
uncommon regulatory regime” designed “to avoid the payment of ‘just
compensation’ after acquiring . . . necessary land by eminent domain.” Order
adopting R. & R., Doc. 196 at 1 (emphasis added). In particular, the court said:
“[T]o avoid the nettlesome payment of ‘just compensation,’ the Ordinance
empowers Pasco County to purposefully leverage the permitting power to compel a
landowner to dedicate land encroached by a transportation corridor. In Pasco
County, if there is no free dedication, there is no permit.” Id. at 2 (emphasis
added). Perhaps most revealingly, the district court observed, even while noting
that by the time that it issued its order Hillcrest was “assert[ing] no federal takings
claim,” that “Hillcrest’s core argument invokes two United States Supreme Court
cases”—yes, Nollan and Dolan—“that consider whether a government’s requiring
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land in exchange for development approval violates the Fifth Amendment’s
Takings Clause, applied to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment.” Id. at
14–15 (emphasis added). Indeed, the district court went so far as to conclude that
“[u]nder the Takings Clause the infirmity of the Ordinance is clear,” id. at 35, and,
further, that “an exaction athwart Nollan and Dolan results in an uncompensated
taking and not a deprivation of due process,” id. at 37 (emphasis added). What
made this case “different,” the court said—what took it out of the Takings Clause
bucket and put it into the substantive-due-process bucket—was that here, “by
legislative fiat, Pasco County use[d] a development permit to compel a landowner
either to convey valuable land for free or to submit to a regime castigated by
Dolan,” and thereby “wield[ed] the police power to compel a landowner’s
abandoning rights guaranteed by the Takings Clause.” Id. I’ll have to confess that
I’m having a hard time seeing the doctrinal space—between where the Takings
Clause leaves off and substantive-due-process doctrine picks up—that the district
court found conclusive.
Tellingly, even in its appellate brief Hillcrest continues to focus on takings-
based arguments, asserting time and again—buttressed by citations to Nollan and
Dolan—that Ordinance No. 11-15 deprives it of “the right to be compensated for a
taking.” Br. for Appellees at 27; see also id. at 33, 37 (same); id. at 39 (contending
that the County violated Hillcrest’s fundamental right to be free of “extortionate,
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arbitrary[,] and irrational regulation and to be compensated for taking of
property”). To be sure, Hillcrest now contends that Nollan and Dolan were not
Takings Clause cases per se, but rather “unconstitutional conditions” cases. And
it’s true that both decisions involved the unconstitutional-conditions doctrine. But
as any faithful reading will attest, both fundamentally implicated landowners’
rights under the Takings Clause.
Again, rather than telling, I’ll show. In Nollan, for instance, the Supreme
Court framed the question as whether, consistent with “the Takings Clause of the
Fifth Amendment,” a state agency “could condition its grant of permission to
rebuild [a] house on [the homeowners’] transfer to the public of an easement across
their beachfront property.” 483 U.S. at 827. The Court observed that if the state
had required the homeowners to grant the easement outright there is “no doubt
there would have been a taking.” Id. at 831. “[C]onditioning their permit to
rebuild their house on their agreeing” to the easement did not “alter[] the
outcome,” the Court held, because there was no “essential nexus” between the
projected impact of constructing a larger house—e.g., obstructed views from the
road—and the exaction demanded of the homeowners—i.e., an easement that
would allow the public to cross their property along the water’s edge. Id. at 834–
37. Takings Clause, through and through.
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Similarly, in Dolan, the Court considered the question whether, under the
Takings Clause, a city “could condition the approval of [a business owner’s]
building permit on the dedication of a portion of her property for flood control and
traffic improvements”—and, in particular, the question of “the required degree of
connection between the exactions imposed by the city and the projected impacts of
the proposed development.” 512 U.S. at 377. The Court opened its analysis by
quoting the Takings Clause in full and reiterating (just as Hillcrest and district
court have here, see Doc. 196 at 24; Br. for Appellees at 14) that “[o]ne of the
principal purposes of the Takings Clause is ‘to bar Government from forcing some
people alone to bear public burdens which, in all fairness and justice, should be
borne by the public as a whole.’” Id. at 384 (quoting Armstrong v. United States,
364 U.S. 40, 49 (1960)). The Court held that before a government agency can
condition a building permit on a property owner’s dedication of a portion of her
parcel, it must, in order to comply with “the Fifth Amendment,” make “some sort
of individualized determination that the required dedication is related both in
nature and extent to the impact of the proposed development.” Id. at 391.
So let’s be clear: Nollan and Dolan—the linchpins of the magistrate judge’s
R&R, the district court’s decision, and Hillcrest’s argument on appeal—are
Takings Clause cases. As the Supreme Court subsequently summarized in Lingle,
“[b]oth Nollan and Dolan involved Fifth Amendment takings challenges to
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adjudicative land-use exactions—specifically, government demands that a
landowner dedicate an easement allowing public access to her property as a
condition of obtaining a development permit.” 544 U.S. at 546. That description
pretty much precisely captures this case: Just like the plaintiffs in Nollan and
Dolan, Hillcrest is complaining that Pasco County has required it to relinquish a
portion of its property as a condition for obtaining a development permit.
* * *
Back to the beginning, then: Why aren’t we talking about the Takings
Clause? And why are we talking about substantive due process? Because
although Hillcrest initially brought a takings claim, it then dismissed that claim
(pending the resolution of parallel litigation in state court) and then eventually
settled it for $4.7 million. Having done so, Hillcrest now wants a second bite at the
apple—in essence, a chance to recover again—under the auspices of substantive
due process. No way.
The way I see it, Hillcrest’s substantive-due-process claim fails as a matter
of law because, whatever else it may currently be permitted to do, substantive-due-
process doctrine cannot be permitted to stand in for a failed or forfeited Takings
Clause claim. And it certainly can’t be deployed to allow a litigant to double-dip
and cash in on a takings claim and then relitigate what is for all intents and
purposes the exact same claim under another label.
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Accordingly, albeit by a different route, I too conclude that the district
court’s decision must be reversed.
II
Having explained my own reasons for concluding that Hillcrest’s
substantive-due-process claim fails as a matter of law, let me briefly explain a
reservation that I have about one of the key “moves” that underlies the majority’s
analysis. To be clear, I think the majority has it exactly right under our existing
precedent. I’m just not convinced that our precedent has it exactly right.
The majority first holds, in Part III.A. of its opinion, that the property
interest asserted by Hillcrest here—a “land-use claim”—is a mere “state-created
right” that doesn’t warrant heightened constitutional protection. Maj. Op. at 11.
Under our decisions in DeKalb Stone, Inc. v. County of DeKalb, 106 F.3d 956(11th Cir. 1997) (per curiam), and Greenbriar Village, L.L.C. v. Mountain Brook,
345 F.3d 1258 (11th Cir. 2003) (per curiam)—the latter of which is effectively on
point—I’m convinced the majority is correct about that. 17 Having so concluded,
17
I hasten to add, however, that I reject any suggestion—typically attributed to the oft-repeated-
but-rarely-explained dictum that “[p]roperty interests . . . are not created by the Constitution” but
“[r]ather . . . are created and their dimensions . . . defined by existing rules or understandings that
stem from an independent source such as state law,” Board of Regents v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 577
(1972)—that all property rights, no matter how traditional, exist by the state’s grace and at its
pleasure. To the contrary, I share Judge O’Scannlain’s view that “there is . . . a ‘core’ notion of
constitutionally protected property into which state regulation simply may not intrude without
prompting” substantive constitutional scrutiny—under either the Takings Clause or (as matters
currently stand) the Due Process Clause. Schneider v. Cal. Dep’t of Corrs., 151 F.3d 1194, 1200
(9th Cir. 1998).
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the majority then proceeds, in Part III.B., to reiterate and enforce what we have
called the “crucial . . . distinction”—first recognized in McKinney v. Pate, 20 F.3d
1550, 1557 (11th Cir. 1994) (en banc)—“between ‘legislative’ acts and ‘non-
legislative’ or ‘executive’ acts.” Maj. Op. at 16 (quoting McKinney, 20 F.3d at
1557 n.9). It’s this legislative-executive distinction that I’d like to address briefly.
In short, the distinction (as accurately summarized by the majority) is as
follows: “When [a person’s] ‘state-created rights are infringed by “legislative act,”
the substantive component of the Due Process Clause generally protects that
person from arbitrary and irrational government action.’” Maj. Op. at 15 (citations
omitted). When, by contrast, a state-created right is violated by executive act, the
Due Process Clause provides no substantive protection—even against arbitrary and
irrational government conduct. Because the County’s permit-denying conduct here
was “quintessentially executive action,” the majority concludes, Hillcrest has no
claim “regardless of how arbitrarily or irrationally the County has acted.” Id. at 19,
22.
I agree that Hillcrest is challenging non-legislative, executive conduct
here—it’s pressing an as-applied claim against the enforcement of Ordinance No.
11-15. Accordingly, I also agree that under our precedent Hillcrest enjoys no
substantive-due-process protection. And of course I’ve already confessed my view
that substantive due process is a dubious doctrine that should be cabined, not
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expanded. Having said that, though, I further confess that I don’t fully understand
the distinction that we’ve drawn between legislative and executive action.
We initially articulated the distinction—in a footnote—in McKinney.
“Executive acts,” we explained, “characteristically apply to a limited number of
persons (and often to only one person).” 20 F.3d at 1557 n.9. They “typically
arise,” we said, “from the ministerial or administrative activities of members of the
executive branch.” Id. “Legislative acts, on the other hand, generally apply to a
larger segment of—if not all of—society; laws and broad-ranging executive
regulations are the most common examples.” Id. In the years since McKinney, we
have repeated (and repeated and repeated—but without further explaining) this
distinction between legislative and executive acts. See, e.g., Kentner v. City of
Sanibel, 750 F.3d 1274, 1279–80 (11th Cir. 2014); Lewis v. Brown, 409 F.3d 1271,
1273 (11th Cir. 2005); Greenbriar, 345 F.3d at 1263; DeKalb Stone, 106 F.3d at959–60.
I have no real quarrel with the way we defined and categorized legislative
and executive actions in McKinney. I agree that, in the main, legislative acts apply
generally to (and across) a broad swath of people, whereas executive acts are
aimed at only one or a few. What I don’t understand is why we should think that
the Constitution provides less protection against executive than legislative
infringements. There’s certainly no textual basis for the distinction; the Due
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Process Clause says that no “state”—presumably meaning any branch thereof—
shall “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”
U.S. Const. amend. XIV, § 1. Nor, so far as I’m aware, have we ever tried to
justify the legislative-executive distinction on historical grounds. And worse, as a
practical matter, the distinction that we’ve drawn—such that the Clause protects
against arbitrary and irrational legislative acts, but not against abusive executive
conduct—arguably gets matters precisely backwards. As between the two, it
seems to me, executive action—which, by its nature, is individual, targeted, and
one-off, rather than broadly and generally applicable—holds the greater potential
for abuse. If a piece of arbitrary legislation threatens to gore many oxen at once,
the ox owners have a fighting chance of exercising enough political muscle to stop
it; the lonely individual whose ox is gored by abusive executive action has next to
none.
And while it may be true that executive acts “typically” arise from
“ministerial or administrative” undertakings, they can also entail exercises of
substantial discretion. This is a case in point. Though perhaps not quite boundless,
it’s clear that the County’s Development Review Committee has wide latitude in
the way that it enforces and effectuates Ordinance No. 11-15. As the magistrate
judge noted in his R&R, “[t]he DRC has the [sole] authority to approve
preliminary site plans, place conditions on such approval, and to exact right-of-
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ways” under the Ordinance. So too, the DRC alone decides whether a property
owner has sufficiently proven that the dedication isn’t “roughly proportional” to
the development’s likely transportation impacts, and accordingly, whether to
compensate the owner or grant a waiver. As this sad story demonstrates, the
sweeping discretion given to the DRC creates the very real threat of arbitrary and
abusive decisionmaking at every step of the permitting process. 18
18
Prudential considerations aside, McKinney’s holding—that at least insofar as land-use claims
are concerned there can be no substantive-due-process claim against even the most abusive
executive action—is at least arguably inconsistent with intervening Supreme Court precedent. In
the City of Cuyahoga Falls v. Buckeye Community Hope Foundation, the Court addressed a
substantive-due-process challenge to a city engineer’s refusal to issue development permits to a
property owner. 538 U.S. 188, 198 (2003). In rejecting the claim, the Court declined to reach
the question whether the property owner had a protectable interest in the permits “because the
city engineer’s refusal to issue the permits . . . in no sense constituted egregious or arbitrary
government conduct.” Id. (citing Cty. of Sacramento v. Lewis, 523 U.S. 833, 846 (1998)). The
Court’s reliance on Lewis—a § 1983 case involving a substantive-due-process claim concerning
an alleged police-involved wrongful death—is telling, as it would seem to foreclose any
suggestion that a similar analysis is out-of-place when property (rather than life or liberty) is at
issue. Quoting Lewis, the Court in Buckeye observed that in evaluating “abusive executive
action . . . only the most egregious official conduct can be said to be ‘arbitrary in the
constitutional sense.”’ Id. (quoting Lewis, 523 U.S. at 846). Thus, it would seem, while our
review of executive action in substantive-due-process cases must be exceedingly (and
appropriately) deferential, that review is not nonexistent, such that challenges to executive action
fail “regardless of how arbitrar[y] or irrational[]” that action may be. Maj. Op. at 21.
In the years since Buckeye, other circuits addressing land-use cases have acknowledged
that executive acts are reviewable, even if under a deferential standard. See, e.g., Onyx
Properties LLC v. Bd. of Cty. Comm’rs of Elbert Cty., 838 F.3d 1039, 1048–49 (10th Cir. 2016)
(stating, in a zoning case, that “[w]hen analyzing executive action, ‘only the most egregious
official conduct can be said to be arbitrary in the constitutional sense”’) (quoting Lewis, 523 U.S.
at 846); Shanks v. Dressel, 540 F.3d 1082, 1088 (9th Cir. 2008) (holding that “[w]hen
executive action like a discrete permitting decision is at issue, only ‘egregious official conduct
can be said to be “arbitrary in the constitutional sense”’ . . . it must amount to an ‘abuse of
power’ lacking any ‘reasonable justification in the service of a legitimate governmental
objective’” (quoting Lewis, 523 U.S. at 846 and citing Buckeye, 538 U.S. at 198)).
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Again, though, this question—whether it makes sense to subject legislative
but not executive action to (even minimal) scrutiny under the substantive
component of the Due Process Clause—is one for another day. Today, McKinney
controls, and (rightly or wrongly) that decision clearly holds, as the majority
summarizes, that “executive action never gives rise to a substantive-due-process
claim unless it infringes on a fundamental right.” Maj. Op. at 2 (emphasis added).
Under our precedent, Hillcrest’s challenge to the Ordinance’s application here does
not implicate any fundamental right, and it clearly assails executive action.
Accordingly, just as the majority says, its claim is DOA.
III
For the foregoing reasons, I concur in the judgment of reversal.
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