⚖ Oral Arguments, with Context

The Sixth Circuit considers a dispute over Nashville's sidewalk requirements for property development. To obtain building permits, owners and developers could be required to build or replace a sidewalk, or pay an in-lieu fee into a city sidewalk fund. In lieu means instead of building the sidewalk themselves. Some owners paid the fees and later brought takings claims, seeking compensation for what they call unconstitutional conditions on development. The district court allowed some timely takings claims to proceed. The city now brings an early appeal before final judgment, not an appeal from a final award of refunds. The Fifth Amendment prohibits taking private property for public use without just compensation. A permit exaction is a demand for money or property as a condition of permission to develop. Calling something an exaction does not by itself establish that it is unlawful. The city will argue that payment was voluntary because the owners could have sought a waiver or variance. It will also argue that, without such a request, its demands were not final. The owners will argue that paying a required fee to get a permit was not a free choice, and that the city had already made its position clear. Finality asks whether the government has settled what it requires. Exhaustion means using available administrative remedies. Those are different questions: a conclusive government position need not await exhaustion, but a genuinely unsettled demand may not yet be ready for court.

KE Holdings LLC v. Metropolitan Government of Nashville (No. 26-5099) — U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, argued October 20, 2026.