⚖ Oral Arguments, with Context

Ranch Springs asks the Eleventh Circuit to overturn a Tax Court ruling that valued a conservation easement on one hundred ten acres of Alabama farmland at three hundred thirty-five thousand five hundred dollars and imposed a forty-percent valuation penalty. A conservation easement restricts future land use; its value generally is the property's value before the restriction minus its value after. Ranch Springs says the land's highest and best use—the reasonably probable use producing its greatest value—was a limestone quarry, and uncertainty belonged in the valuation. The Commissioner says a quarry was speculative and nearby land sales showed a much lower value.

Ranch Springs, LLC v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue (No. 25-12753) — U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, argued August 13, 2026.