Residents Matthew Bernard and Lynn Warner \u2014 represented by lawyers from the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank \u2014 filed the complaint<\/a> Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The lawsuit, which was first reported by the San Francisco Chronicle<\/a>, seeks to challenge the city\u2019s Protected Tree Ordinance, under which they were fined nearly $1 million.<\/p>\n Bernard and Warner were ordered to clear \u201cdead and dying trees\u201d from their land in 2020, but after they removed them without a city permit, the city council \u201clevied a staggering $915,135.40 fine for the prior tree removal, threatened to place a lien on the property and halted all building permits,\u201d the Texas Public Policy Foundation said in a press release<\/a>. <\/p>\n Oakland\u2019s Protected Tree Ordinance requires residents to obtain a permit for the removal of \u201cany tree on public or private property,\u201d according to the city\u2019s website<\/a>. Violators are liable \u201cfor all costs associated with the investigation and enforcement,\u201d the ordinance<\/a> states. The fine was imposed in May, following a City Council vote.<\/p>\n Chance Weldon, the think tank\u2019s litigation director, accused the city of \u201carbitrary overreach.\u201d He added: \u201cFolks have a right to do basic property maintenance on their own land without risking penalties that will ruin their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n When reached for comment, Weldon told The Independent his clients claim to have only removed \u201ceight to14 trees from their property, depending on how broadly you define tree.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201dThe City’s $915,000 fine is based solely on trees allegedly removed from my client’s property. That fine is what forms the sole basis of this lawsuit,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n The couple has alleged the city\u2019s actions \u201cconstitute an uncompensated taking of private property, impose unconstitutional permit conditions without any nexus to actual public harm, and violate the Eighth Amendment\u2019s protection against excessive fines.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis penalty, calculated by a preset formula without any evidence of actual public harm, is roughly five times the total value of the land itself. Astonishingly, it is also eighteen times higher than California\u2019s maximum statutory fine for the malicious arson of an entire forest,\u201d the Texas Public Policy Foundation said in a release.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the Oakland City Attorney\u2019s Office said the agency plans to defend the ordinance, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The office\u2019s spokesperson declined to comment when contacted by The Independent. <\/p>\n Bernard is facing a separate legal challenge from a neighbor who claims their trees were cut down, and Oakland officials have alleged he also removed trees from nearby city-owned land, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Regarding the neighbor\u2019s ongoing litigation, Weldon said he does not represent the couple in that case, but believes they \u201cdeny those allegations.\u201d<\/p>\n Oakland\u2019s City Council voted to impose the fine in May following an investigation and a series of hearings. <\/p>\n \u201cWe have to decide whether Oakland will continue to have the reputation that people can do whatever they want without consequences,\u201d City Council President Kevin Jenkins said at the time, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384231,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-384230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/iStock-1442819317.jpg\")
A couple has sued the city of Oakland, California, over a nearly $1 million fine they received for cutting down trees on their property (Getty Images)<\/p>\n