AUSTIN – A Texas-based nonprofit group is one of two entities seeking judgment on the pleadings in their challenge to a federal law that they argue unconstitutionally takes farmers’ property without compensation.
On Oct. 3, the Liberty Justice Center, along with the Pacific Legal Foundation, filed a motion for judgment on the pleadings in CTM Holdings, LLC v. U.S. Department of Agriculture.
In 1985, Congress passed a statute known as “Swampbuster,” which aimed to protect America’s wetlands by requiring farmers to leave all property deemed “wetlands” untouched – and if they did not, they would forfeit all U.S. Department of Agriculture benefits, including crop insurance and the ability to apply for loans. If a farmer was to touch any property deemed wetlands, they faced the potential of losing the USDA benefits for every property that they own, rent or lease to farm.
When the federal government utilizes eminent domain to acquire private property, the Fifth Amendment requires it to provide just compensation to the owner. But for nearly four decades, the plaintiffs allege, “Swampbuster” has “effectively allowed the federal government to take farmers’ property without the just compensation that the Constitution requires.”
CTM Holdings, a family-run Iowa company that owns and manages approximately 1,075 acres of Iowa farmland, and rents out its farmland to small local farmers to grow crops. Jim Conlan, owner and manager of CTM Holdings, grew up in a farming family and has invested in Iowa farmland, including his grandparents’ old farm, to reconnect with his roots after a successful career as a corporate attorney, and amid a current career in the finance/private equity industry.
The federal government categorized nine acres of a 71-acre parcel of CTM Holdings’ property as wetlands – even though the area is dry, arable land that is not connected to any water source, contains no standing water and is not inundated by water at any point in the year. Because of the provisions in Swampbuster, CTM Holdings cannot farm on those nine acres. If they do, CTM Holdings, their tenant, and all the other tenants on the remaining 1,000 acres could lose their USDA benefits.
The Liberty Justice Center and Pacific Legal Foundation assisted CTM Holdings in filing suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa’s Eastern Division on April 16, versus the U.S. Department of Agriculture, its Secretary Thomas J. Vilsack, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, its Chief Terry Cosby and Iowa State Conservationist Jon Hubbert.
The plaintiff and his backers argue that the legislation violates farmers’ rights by taking private property without just compensation, and by conditioning the receipt of federal benefits on the waiver of a constitutional right.
Through their motion for judgment on the pleadings, the Liberty Justice Center and Pacific Legal Foundation have asked the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa to issue a final ruling striking down the “Swampbuster” statute.
“We’re asking the Court to put an end to decades of legalized abuse and uphold farmers’ Fifth Amendment rights by requiring the federal government pay farmers just compensation if it takes their property,” Loren Seehase, Senior Counsel at the Liberty Justice Center, said.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa Eastern Division case 6:24-cv-02016
From the Southeast Texas Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com