Ranchers say the state flooded their lands, killing animals. The Supreme Court will decide if Texas has to pay

The DeVilliers have ranched in Texas for nearly a century. They say their land never flooded until the state raised Interstate 10. Now they're headed to the Supreme Court.

Many of the living cattle they had found so far would not survive the next few days. Their bodies were already bloated from standing in water for so long, the coarse black hair sloughed away in patches. Left, McCain DeVillier leans over the side of a boat to hold a calf's head above water. Center, hay bales and ranch equipment stick out of the floodwaters. Right, water covers one side of Interstate 10. (Courtesy Institute for Justice) Richie DeVillier's family has ranched several hundred acres near Winnie, Texas for almost a century. In all that time, he says it never flooded until the state raised Interstate 10 and installed a concrete median. (Courtesy Institute for Justice) The DeVillier family's ranch first flooded after Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Two years later, it flooded again when Tropical Storm Imelda hit. (Courtesy Institute for Justice) "When your government can take from you at will what they want and you have no redress, that's straight up tyranny." Hannah Ray Lambert is an associate producer/writer with Fox News Digital Originals.

The DeVilliers lost about 60 of their 300 cows and calves, plus seven horses.

"You love your animals," DeVillier said. "It's hard enough seeing a cow drowned. But horses are a different thing. Horses are parts of our souls."