Lent v. California Coastal Commission brief argues government vastly overreached against private property owner
Los Angeles, Calif. (July 20, 2020) – NFIB filed an amicus brief in the case Lent v. California Coastal Commission, arguing that the California Coastal Commission violated the Lent’s constitutional right to procedural due process by fining the Lent’s $4.185 million – the CCC’s first-ever fine – for blocking public access to the beach.
“This case demonstrates the worst type of government overreach; providing no due process or opportunity to respond and fining an excessive amount of money to a private property owner,” said Karen Harned, Executive Director of NFIB’s Small Business Legal Center. “The judiciary must act independently and hold state agencies to account when they fail to provide due process protections to those they regulate. Without due process, as the United States Constitution requires, government actors will be quick to impose ruinous fines and penalties on small businesses and all Americans.”
NFIB filed the amicus brief with the New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA) and the California Farm Bureau Federation (CFBF) in the California Court of Appeal Second Appellate District Division 7 arguing that the Commission violated the Lent’s Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment rights to procedural due process and the $4.185 million fine violates their Eighth Amendment protection from excessive fines.
The NFIB Small Business Legal Center protects the rights of small business owners in the nation’s courts. NFIB is currently active in more than 40 cases in federal and state courts across the country and in the U.S. Supreme Court.
