At issue was whether the Florida Supreme Court violated the United States Constitution's Takings Clause when it upheld a plan to create a state-owned public beach between private waterfront property and the Gulf of Mexico through its beach nourishment program.

[1] In 2003, the City of Destin and Walton County applied to add about 75 ft of dry sand to 6.9 mi of local eroded beach.

In an intensive review of Florida case law, the Supreme Court held that the Florida doctrine of avulsion, which holds that land created by a sudden event belongs to the owner of the seabed, applies to beach restoration.

Regardless, Kennedy theorizes that procedural and substantive due process should protect from judicial elimination of property rights, even without invoking the Takings Clause.

Justice Stevens, who left the court twelve days after the case was decided, did not participate because he owns a beachfront property in Florida.