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Huckabee Sued County For Closing His Beach Due to COVID-19

Old 'N Chill

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I personally wouldn't want crowds of strangers gathering near my house during a coronavirus pandemic...but then again, I'm not a selfish crybaby repug.

Apparently his 10,000-square-foot mansion with a pool isn’t enough space for a quarantine.

Mike Huckabee has been trying for years to keep people off the beach in front of his $6 million McMansion on the Gulf Coast of Florida. Since he bought the house in 2011, he has complained that the 115-foot spit of sugar-sand beach in front of his Walton County property has been fouled by pot-smoking kids and pooping dogs. Most shocking of all, he once saw a young couple strip naked and have sex on a YOLO board there at two in the afternoon. But now that the county has finally closed the beach and kicked out all the spring breakers as part of its pandemic response, Huckabee has sued the county because he can’t go out there either.

On Monday, the former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate joined with a bunch of his rich neighbors to sue Walton County, Florida, in federal court, alleging that the county’s beach closing order has left them faced with “threats of criminal prosecution for doing no more than setting foot in their own backyards that they own.” They told the court that the beach closure order constitutes an illegal taking of property without compensation and violates their constitutionally guaranteed property and due process rights. “The county’s ordinance forces family members into a confined space within their house rather than allow them to social distance and recreate in their sandy backyard,” the plaintiffs complained in a court document. (There has been an ongoing and heated legal fight over whether Huckabee really does technically “own” the beach in front of his house, which had been used by the public for centuries before he moved there.)


Undeterred, three days later, Huckabee filed his lawsuit, asking for an emergency injunction that would reopen his little patch of sand. A judge will hear the arguments on Monday. “I don’t know how he sleeps at night,” Daniel Uhlfelder, a Walton County attorney who has tangled with Huckabee before over public access to the beach near his house, told me. “This is a temporary attempt to protect the public. We’re in a pandemic. People are dying. And he’s suing the sheriff in federal court.”

Mike Huckabee Just Sued the County Because It Closed His Beach – Mother Jones
 
Most shocking of all, he once saw a young couple strip naked and have sex on a YOLO board there at two in the afternoon.

Good money says Mr. Fake Holyman scrambled to get his binoculars.
 
I don't like this Huckabee guy.
 
My advice to Huckabee is pretty simple: read the room.

The problem is that conservative politicians hang out in different rooms than the progressive ones do.
 
Remove the spin, and the complaint seems perfectly valid. What, exactly, makes using one's own private lot a public danger simply because it has beach frontage? Is there some evidence that COVID-19 is being spread by water?

Generally in Canada ref beach front ownership, a person owns up to the high tide mark. Below that is public lands, and as such can be closed

Is the beach legally his?
 
Does he own the beach? Or does his property just bordering on public property(the beach)?


Seems like Huckabee and his neighbors own that part of the beach ...

"... According to the complaint, the county, its sheriff, its code enforcement officers, and the South Walton, Fla. Fire District “have been and are currently patrolling and occupying the private beachfront properties” without permission and threatening to “arrest or fine Plaintiffs, their family members, or invitees on their private properties.” ..."


Mike Huckabee Files Lawsuit to Access Private Beach | Law & Crime
 
Remove the spin, and the complaint seems perfectly valid. What, exactly, makes using one's own private lot a public danger simply because it has beach frontage? Is there some evidence that COVID-19 is being spread by water?

Yeah, but it's all about the headline.

The writer takes a relatively reasonable issue with two valid arguments. Distorts the basic facts. Then assigns the legal action to Mike Huckabee directly and pastes his name in bold letters at the top of the story.

Its the new norm. Play to your audience and call it news reporting.

..
 
Yeah, but it's all about the headline.

The writer takes a relatively reasonable issue with two valid arguments. Distorts the basic facts. Then assigns the legal action to Mike Huckabee directly and pastes his name in bold letters at the top of the story.

Its the new norm. Play to your audience and call it news reporting.

..

As explained in another post, all Florida beaches are public property from the MHTL out.
 
We’re in a pandemic. People are dying. And you're posting garbage. You should be ashamed of yourself.

(See how easy it is to play the pandemic card?)

Man, you really don't realize how transparent it is that the Trumpist response to all criticism is to call it a "hoax" or a "card".

:lol:
 
As explained in another post, all Florida beaches are public property from the MHTL out.

Yeah, kinda, but not really. When beaches erode, as they often do, and the tide level changes, as it often does over time, beachfront property owners wail and wallow in the tidal pools up under their deck, "Help! Help! The government has to help me. I'm losing my investment." Insurance companies scream, "Help, Help, they are losing their investments. Somebody do something." Guess what? Local, and federal governments often do step in and bulldoze, and dig and dump sand and create artificial reefs to re-route mother nature's beaches.

Suddenly, the beaches must be saved for everyone, for the city, for the county, for the people. And so the people's money foots the bill. A few years later, the county commission begins to hear complaints from homeowners about the public walking on the owner's "private beach."

One example I am familiar with.
 
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Seems like Huckabee and his neighbors own that part of the beach ...

"... According to the complaint, the county, its sheriff, its code enforcement officers, and the South Walton, Fla. Fire District “have been and are currently patrolling and occupying the private beachfront properties” without permission and threatening to “arrest or fine Plaintiffs, their family members, or invitees on their private properties.” ..."


Mike Huckabee Files Lawsuit to Access Private Beach | Law & Crime

I would think if they can actually prove that the beach (the actual beach)is his property, he will win.

Is it his property up to high tide, low tide?

It will be interesting to see.

But I agree, if it is actually his property, he should be able to use his own property.
 
Yeah, kinda, but not really. When beaches erode, as they often do, and the tide level changes, as it often does over time, beachfront property owners wail and wallow in the tidal pools up under their deck, "Help! Help! The government has to help me. I'm losing my investment." Insurance companies scream, "Help, Help, they are losing their investments. Somebody do something." Guess what? Local, and federal governments often do step in and bulldoze, and dig and dump sand and create artificial reefs to re-route mother nature's beaches.

Suddenly, the beaches must be saved for everyone, for the city, for the county, for the people. And it so the people's money foots the bill. A few years later, the county commission begins to hear complaints from homeowners about the public walking on the public walking on the owner's "private beach."

One example I am familiar with.


I have a friend who bought a seaside house, only it was one street over from the water, so he'd have to cross people's property to get to the beach.

Then a hurricane came through and destroyed all the beach side homes and made his house a beach side home. Doubled the value of his property.

But he was the kind of guy were nothing was ever good enough. If he had a billion dollars he'd want two billion and once he got two, he'd want four.
 
Yeah, kinda, but not really. When beaches erode, as they often do, and the tide level changes, as it often does over time, beachfront property owners wail and wallow in the tidal pools up under their deck, "Help! Help! The government has to help me. I'm losing my investment." Insurance companies scream, "Help, Help, they are losing their investments. Somebody do something." Guess what? Local, and federal governments often do step in and bulldoze, and dig and dump sand and create artificial reefs to re-route mother nature's beaches.

Suddenly, the beaches must be saved for everyone, for the city, for the county, for the people. And so the people's money foots the bill. A few years later, the county commission begins to hear complaints from homeowners about the public walking on the owner's "private beach."

One example I am familiar with.

To be fair, this is not the sole realm of wealthy people. Poor people living on some Pacific islands do the same complaining.
 
I would think if they can actually prove that the beach (the actual beach)is his property, he will win.

Is it his property up to high tide, low tide?

It will be interesting to see.

But I agree, if it is actually his property, he should be able to use his own property.

May be a case where it just gets down to the details.

When we saw all those crowds of springbreakers recently cavorting on Florida beaches a lot of people just shook there heads and were annoyed by the idiot behavior. <raises hand> Because it was idiot behavior.

So now how far has the pendulum swung in the other direction? Are homeowners with beachfront houses now exposing themselves to fines/arrests if they simply walk out on to an (essentially) abandon beach? Believe most of us would consider that somewhat absurd....if it is indeed the case.

Again. Details matter. At the moment most of us do not have those details.

..
 
Seems like Huckabee and his neighbors own that part of the beach ...

"... According to the complaint, the county, its sheriff, its code enforcement officers, and the South Walton, Fla. Fire District “have been and are currently patrolling and occupying the private beachfront properties” without permission and threatening to “arrest or fine Plaintiffs, their family members, or invitees on their private properties.” ..."


Mike Huckabee Files Lawsuit to Access Private Beach | Law & Crime

My guess is it will rest on the actual property records.

But if they are keeping them off their own property, I cannot see how it is right to do so.
 
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