Civil rights suit over building permit fails

Can there be a civil right to a building permit?

The U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals answered the question in a partial negative on Tuesday with its dismissal of a New Hampshire developer's federal civil rights suit under 42 USC Sec. 1983. Developers Henry Torromeo and MDR Corporation had alleged that when the town of Fremont, NH delayed issuing building permits to them, it violated their Constitutional rights to due process and to equal protection of the laws, and also their rights against uncompensated "takings" under the Fifth Amendment. This week the federal appeals court threw out the due process and equal protection claims, saying those allegations straightforwardly failed to describe genuine Constitutional rights violations, but it rejected the Fifth Amendment takings claim on a more technical theory: the developers had already lost on the takings theory in the state Supreme Court, and the federal court felt they were now attempting an improper end run around that previous decision. Tuesday's federal decision is Torromeo v. Town of Fremont, NH.