Property Owners Can Pursue Flooded Land Fight, Justices Say (1)

The US Supreme Court gave a group of Texas landowners another chance to get compensation from the state after a highway project flooded their properties.

In a unanimous decision on Tuesday, the court said the property owners should be permitted to pursue their claims under the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment through a right to sue under Texas law.

In the opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas explained that the court took the case to decide if the Constitution allows the landowners to bring the kind of lawsuit they filed without an act of Congress.

But, he said, that assumes there’s ...