2025 News UMass Law News 2025: Lyness Quoted in RI PBS Story on Shoreline Litigation

Professor Lyness was quoted in a recent RI PBS and The Rhode Island Current story on shoreline litigation.

UMass Law Professor Sean Lyness was quoted in a recent Rhode Island PBS and The Rhode Island Current story on shoreline litigation. A private Rhode Island coastal country club has sued the state coastal agency over a rock sea wall the club built without permits or permission. The country club insists the state’s shoreline requirements are an unconstitutional taking. “It’s not uncommon for private property owners to assert these kinds of property rights claims in the face of state regulatory regimes,” said Professor Lyness. But “[t]he Takings Clause has expressly carved out background principles[.] Private property owners are allowed to do a lot with their private property, but they’re not allowed to do anything they want.” Professor Lyness opined that this challenge was unlikely to be successful.

Professor Lyness teaches Civil Procedure, Water Law, and Legislation & Regulation. His research focuses on environmental and natural resources law at the state and local levels, with particular emphasis on the public trust doctrine and public access to natural resources. He previously worked as a Special Assistant Attorney General in the Rhode Island Attorney General’s Office, handling cases in the Environmental, Open Government, and Litigation Units. He began his legal career as a law clerk to the Honorable Alice B. Gibney, Presiding Justice of the Rhode Island Superior Court.