At long last here is an outspoken, intellectually honest federal judge telling it like it is with regard to the Williamson County – San Remo Hotel – International College of Surgeons mess, and who candidly explains what hash the Supreme Court has made out of the confluence of ripeness and issue preclusion rules in cases of uncompensated property takings. Looks like there is hope. See Del Prairie Stock Farm v. County of Walworth, 572 F.Supp.2d 1031 (ED Wis. 2008).
This was another one of those atrocious cases where the owner claiming an uncompensated taking of his property filed his lawsuit in state court as required by the Williamson County case, only to have the defendant-county remove it to federal court and there have the chutzpa to argue that the federal court lacked jurisdiction because the owners were supposed to litigate in state court, which of course they did until the county removed it to federal court. Nothing doing, ruled the federal court, and remanded the matter back to state court, noting that the reason it did not sanction the county was that the owners had not asked for sanctions. Keep that in mind.