ON OCTOBER 2, 2018, Rose Knick called PLF with an important question: How many quarters should she bring for the coin-operated lockers at the U.S. Supreme Court building?
“The Supreme Court website says you can’t bring things like cell phones or purses into the courtroom,” Rose explained. “It also says they have lockers to store our belongings, and they take quarters, but it doesn’t say how many. So I thought I’d just call and ask.” (Answer: one quarter.)
Rose hadn’t been to Washington, DC, since high school, and she’d never been to the Supreme Court.
That all changed when the Court granted review in Knick v. Scott Township, Pennsylvania—Rose’s fight over a local graveyard law that could undo a precedent that’s slammed federal courtroom doors shut on takings cases for 33 years.
Quarter in hand, Rose left her Pennsylvania farm at 2 a.m. the next morning with her nephew and a hired driver to handle the weekday morning DC traffic. They were hustled into the Supreme Court building upon arrival and into their reserved seats in the chamber. Their seats were just behind PLF’s lead counsel, Dave Breemer, and co-counsel, Christina Martin.
“We were a lot closer to the action than I expected, and we could see and hear everything,” Rose recalled. “We were on the side across from Justices [Samuel] Alito and [Elena] Kagan.”
Once argument started, Rose was fascinated. She had read all the briefs and court filings, including 18 amicus briefs supporting her case. She took particular interest in one rather tense exchange between Justice Alito and the defense attorney discussing what triggers a “taking” and how much the township owes Rose:
“Does the township owe her any money? Yes or no?” Alito asked. “I don’t see how you cannot have an answer to that question.”
The attorney never gave a direct answer.
“I wanted to stand up and shout, ‘Yeah! Answer the question!’” Rose laughed.
It turns out the justices want to find out as well, and on November 2, they ordered the case be reargued— this time with Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was confirmed to the Court the week following the first argument.
“I’m very glad we get to argue the case with nine justices this time,” said Rose. “I was a little worried about a 4-4 split. I didn’t want to have to go back to the drawing board.”
