Porretto v. Texas General Land Office

The principal issue before us is whether the State’s repeated recharacterization of private property as public constitutes a compensable taking under Article I, Section 17(a) of the Texas Constitution.1 Though the State’s conduct is troubling, it is not a taking. We affirm the court of appeals on that issue,2 but we reverse on other issues and remand the case to the trial court for rendition of judgment.

I

A

From the late 1950s through the early 1970s, the Porretto family acquired 17 tracts totaling some 27 acres located be*395tween the Galveston Seawall and the Gulf of Mexico. The tracts were…