A federal judge in Rhode Island handed property owners a rare and useful win last week, and the reasoning behind it deserves more attention than the case has gotten. In SCLS Realty, LLC v. Town of Johnston, Judge Melissa R. DuBose ruled that Johnston’s seizure of a 31-acre parcel off George Waterman Road was void from the start, because the town never had the legal authority to take the property the way it did.

The facts read like a checklist of what not to do. The Santoro family, through SCLS Realty and a related entity, planned a 252-unit affordable housing complex on the site under a 2023 Rhode Island law designed to encourage exactly that kind of project. Johnston Mayor Joseph Polisena Jr. opposed it and, according to Reason, promised to use every power of government available to stop it. The town then invented its own condemnation process, claimed the land for a municipal complex, transferred title to itself, and deposited compensation with a state court, all without telling the property owners any of this was happening. They found out from a social media post.

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