The owners of a hardware store chain have exhausted legal options in their eminent domain fight against the Long Island town of Southold after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case Monday.
While Justices Neil Gorsuch, Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh voted to hear the case, the case was one vote short of getting its day at the high court. The three conservative justices took the unusual step of recording their votes publicly.
The Supreme Court only agrees to hear a few dozen cases per year out of thousands of petitions.
Prior to the petition, the case, Brinkmann, et al. v. Town of Southold, New York, was heard by the U.S. Eastern District Court and the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Ben and Hank Brinkmann, owners of a chain of paint and hardware stores, purchased a parcel of commercially zoned land at 12500 Main Road in 2016 with the intention of building a North Fork outpost for their business.
They submitted a building permit to begin construction in 2019, but were met with fierce opposition from the town of Southold, with locals complaining that the store would generate traffic. Eventually, the town voted to seize the land via eminent domain, with the stated intention of using it as a passive park.
Following the verdict by the Eastern District Court in October 2022, the parcel of land was vested back to the town.
The Brinkmanns, with free legal representation by the advocacy group Institute for Justice, fought through the layers of the justice system to build on the land they had purchased, and to enshrine protections for private property owners fighting eminent domain claims by the government.
The brothers argued before the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the town’s seizure of the land had an unconstitutional pretext. The court ruled against them in a 2-1 vote, arguing that “courts do not inquire into alleged pretexts and motives,” but the dissenting judge noted that the decision grants the government nearly unlimited power over private property.
“While the Brinkmanns’ case may be over, we will continue to represent property owners all over the country, whenever they are threatened by eminent domain abuse,” said Institute for Justice senior attorney Jeff Redfern. “We are not giving up, and we will be back before the Supreme Court again.”
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The Brinkmanns maintain that elevating the case all the way through the justice system was for the greater good.
“Government shouldn’t be able to get away with these abuses of power,” they said in a statement. “Shining a light on them like we did with the help of IJ will continue to build public support, so that one day no one will have to go through what we have.”