The Supreme Court declined to weigh in on an appellate court ruling that rejected damages for woman whose home in a Dallas suburb was destroyed by a Texas SWAT team chasing man holding a 15-year-old girl hostage. Two justices from opposite ends of the legal spectrum — Sonia Sotomayor and Neil Gorsuch — disagreed with that decision, reports lawandcrime.com. In 2020, fugitive Wesley Little kidnapped a 15-year-old girl. Little led police in a high-speed car chase, and drove to the home of Vicki Baker while the girl was in his custody. Little had worked there as a handyman. Police unsuccessfully tried several tactics to get Little out of the home, including launching dozens of tear gas grenades into the house. Eventually, officers detonated explosives, which broke down the front and garage doors, and used a tank-like vehicle to bulldoze the home’s backyard fence. When police entered, they found that Little had taken his own life.
Baker sought compensation for significant damage to her property. She sued the city under the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment, which says private property shall not “be taken for public use, without just compensation.” Baker won a judgment of nearly $60,000, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed it, saying police merely did what was necessary to resolve the emergency. Sotomayor and Gorsuch joined in a statement saying that the legality of Takings Clause inerpretation of the Fifth Circuit “is an important and complex question that would benefit from further percolation in the lower courts prior to this Court’s intervention.” Sotomayor sit it is a “serious question” whether the Constitution allows government to destroy private property without compensating the owners. The votes of four justices are necessary for the high court to hear a case. Baker said, “If police can destroy my home and leave me with the bill, it can happen to anyone.”
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