In its 2001 Palazzolo v. Rhode Island decision, the Supreme Court expanded the power of landowners to sue governments over regulatory restrictions. It was a big victory for the little guys: Anthony Palazzolo, owner of a modest tow truck business, had purchased the parcel at the center of the dispute in 1959. The ruling was also a small setback for big government, and the “big guy” who lost the case? Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, at that time the attorney general of Rhode Island.
Seventeen years later, Palazzolo was living rent-free on property inside Whitehouse’s skull. During a 2018 Supreme Court confirmation hearing for Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Whitehouse referenced Palazzolo and the Pacific Legal Foundation, a public interest law firm that jumped in free of charge to help Palazzolo fight against the Rhode Island attorney general’s effectively limitless legal resources. Still out of sorts because simple citizens had won from him a greater ability to sue regulators, Whitehouse was also irked that those same simpletons could obtain access to free lawyers willing to fight for their rights.
