Checking out our colleague Robert Thomas’ blog of today, ( www.inversecondemnation.com ), we came across this gem in his explanation of the — alas, unpublished — ripeness ruling of the 4th Circuit decision in Clayland Farm Enterprises v. Talbot County (4th Cir.) Docket No. 15-1755 (Dec. 2, 2016), holding that a government entity who removed an inverse condemnation case from state court to federal court, would not be heard to argue that the case should have been pursued in state court. Quoth Roberts:
“When the government removes [an inverse condemnation] case [from state] to federal court, it shouldn’t get any traction with an argument based on the notion that the claim should [] have been brought in [state court, not in] federal court and thus isn’t ripe — the law may be an ass sometimes, but it’s not so nuts as to accept an argument that would make Leo Rosten [*] blush.”
Now, if we could only see similar blunt candor in opinions of the federal courts being asked to make similar rulings, that would be nice.
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*Leo Rosten was the author of THE JOYS OF YIDDISH, a very funny lexicon-style book of Yiddish expressions, many of which have become a part of colloquial American English. Thomas was evidently referring to Rosten’s famous definition of chutzpah as the attitude of a criminal defendant who, having killed both his parents, threw himself on the mercy of the courts because he was an orphan.