After the U.S. Supreme Court in Cedar Point Nursery reminded everyone that the Court’s longstanding focus on the right to exclude others as one of the most fundamental of property rights is as fresh today as it ever was (see Kaiser Aetna (uninvited boaters), Loretto (cable TV box), Nollan (beachcombers) and Horne (segregating raisins, for example). 

Cedar Point Nursery left some of us wondering “what’s next?”

Well try this one on for size. Virginia property owners recently sued the Department of Wildlife Resources over the state’s “right to retrieve” law, Va. Code § 18.2-136 (“Fox hunters and coon hunters, when the chase begins on other lands, may follow their dogs on prohibited lands, and hunters of all other game, when the chase begins on other lands, may go upon prohibited lands to retrieve their dogs, falcons, hawks, or owls but may not carry firearms or bows and arrows on their persons or hunt any game while thereon.“).

Here’s Petition, which seeks both declaratory relief, and just compensation.[Disclosure: in this case, like Cedar Point Nursery, the property owners are represented by our law firm, Pacific Legal Foundation — here, our colleague Daniel Woislaw.] Accordingly, I won’t be detailing the issues or my thoughts on the case (although you probably can guess — [don’t] release the hounds!).

We leave it to you to read the petition, and follow along. More on the case here, from the Associated Press.

Petition for Declaratory Judgment and the Impaneling of a Jury for the Determination of Just Compensation,…