It only took a week for a newly formed group of egocentric Rhode Islanders, for at least part of the year anyway, to go running to the feds because they think they own the waterfront.
Under a lawsuit filed July 7 in federal court, this group of shoreline property owners — dubbed the Rhode Island Association of Coastal Taxpayers, a title they no doubt believe sets them apart from the taxpayer riff-raff that exists inland — is asking that state officials be stopped from enforcing the Ocean State’s new shoreline access law. The group alleges the law violates their constitutional private property rights.
