Victims - Robert Brace
Robert Brace & Sons, Inc.
Waterford, Pennsylvania
Bob Brace seeks compensation from the federal government for substantial damages he incurred to comply with federal wetlands rules. Those regulations destroyed a key parcel of prime land on the Brace homestead farm and wasted 10 years worth of his personal sweat equity and another 10 years of expensive litigation in the Tucker Act Shuffle. In his complaint, Bob is seeking compensation for his land, for which there is no longer any economically viable use, and for losses resulting from being unable to use the land since 1987. Because of permanent restrictions imposed by the United States, his property cannot be farmed or developed. If Brace could put the land to its highest and best use, it would have a value in excess of $3,000,000.
Ever since the wetlands enviro-police showed up at his farm in 1987, Bob Brace has devoted a substantial portion of his life to two objectives: First, working within the confines of the system to defend his family’s land in a lengthy Court battle challenging the federal government’s takeover of normal farming in rural Erie County under the guise of wetlands regulation. And second, speaking out on the rapid erosion and ultimate destruction of Constitutionally protected private property rights that results from excessive environmental regulation by educating and encouraging landowners to stand up for their rights.
Bob’s efforts, along with a handful of his supporters, led to the formation of PLA and gave a voice to property rights in Pennsylvania.
Can the Government lock up your land for some bureaucratically contrived public purpose without justly compensating you?
Does the takings clause mean what it says?
Brace and his family have been vilified and ridiculed by the media, regulatory bureaucrats, and those who make a living off regulation or “go along to get along.”
He has also been abandoned by political leaders who jumped on his bandwagon when they thought it was politically expedient, but jumped off when environmentalists turned up the heat. For example, it is no secret that Governor Ridge flip-flopped on wetlands reform after he was elected. Not only did Ridge leave Bob Brace and hundreds of similarly situated Pennsylvanians in the lurch, but he also went out of his way to scuttle Representative Howard Fargo’s state wetlands reform legislation (House Bill 200), a measure that was patterned after then-Congressman Ridge’s wetlands reform bill, H.R. 1330. Regrettably, the record of Pennsylvania’s United States Senators on this issue is not too sterling either. Landowners like Bob Brace have come to know all too well the difference between campaign rhetoric and forthright legislative leadership and tough votes.
For the last 11 years, Bob Brace has been an outspoken voice for the Constitutional rights of ordinary citizens not only in Pennsylvania but throughout the nation. He has been a beacon of hope to the little guy who is being overwhelmed as the juggernaut of government control rolls over private property rights. He has traveled throughout Pennsylvania and the United States to carry his message to landowners and ordinary citizens, and he has received recognition and awards for his unflagging defense of property rights.
Much to his credit, Bob has also played by the rules, and his only uncorrected violation has been to continue speaking out against injustice and the erosion of our constitutional system. People who know what it’s like to cope with aggressive environmental bureaucrats and lawyers are truly fortunate to have an advocate like Bob Brace whose personal philosophy and courage defines what it means to “take a stand for your land.”
The question is now before the Court of Claims.
Can the Government lock up your land for some bureaucratically contrived public purpose without justly compensating you?
Does the takings clause mean what it says?
Bob Brace hopes that the bedrock principles in which he so strongly believes will at last be vindicated.