ELR Citation: 43 ELR 20037
No(s). 12-5073 (Fed. Cir. Feb 20, 2013)

The Federal Circuit affirmed a lower court decision dismissing an individual's regulatory takings claim against the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) for refusing to replace a bridge he used to access portions of land he leased from the Colorado River Indian Tribes. The individual did not claim that the BIA's removal of the bridge was itself a taking, but rather that the BIA's alleged refusal to authorize replacement of the bridge was a taking of his property rights. But the individual never availed himself of the permitting process or exhausted his administrative remedies. His regulatory takings claim, therefore, is not ripe. And even if the claim was ripe, he had no cognizable property interest in the bridge.