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Supreme Court sides with private property against the federal government
Hotair ^ | 12/04/2012 | Erika Johnsen

Posted on 12/04/2012 5:25:20 PM PST by SeekAndFind

We've got to celebrate the freedom-endorsing little victories won by the Supreme Court while we've still kinda-sorta got it (one shudders to think of what what the highest court in the land may look like after four more years of President Obama), and the justices logged one in favor of private-property rights with their unanimous decision on Arkansas Game and Fish Commission v. United States on Tuesday.

Per the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment ("nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation"), the question was whether a series of floods coordinated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers qualified as an actual compensation-worthy taking, since the effects were temporary in nature (although, according to the Court’s opinion, the authorized flooding disrupted the peak growing season for timber and damaged or destroyed more than 18 million board feet of timber over seven years!). As one unit, SCOTUS affirmed that the federal government’s actions did indeed amount to a taking:

What the government taketh, the government must pay for.

That was the 8-0 ruling of the Supreme Court on Tuesday in a case that involved water, water everywhere for Arkansas wildlife officials for several months a year from 1993 to 2000 — water released at a federal dam that flooded state forest land and made it temporarily unusable. …

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, writing for the full court except for Justice Elena Kagan who did not take part in the case, said the government’s actions did amount to a taking.

More from the Court’s opinion, delivered by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg:

Because government-induced flooding can constitute a taking of property, and because a taking need not be permanent to be compensable, our precedent indicates that government-induced flooding of limited duration may be compensable. No decision of this Court authorizes a blanket temporary-flooding exception to our Takings Clause jurisprudence, and we decline to create such an exception in this case. … There is thus no solid grounding in precedent for setting flooding apart from all other government intrusions on property. And the Government has presented no other persuasive reason to do so. Its primary argument is of the in for a penny, in for a pound genre… The slippery slope argument, we note, is hardly novel or unique to flooding cases. Time and again in Takings Clause cases, the Court has heard the prophecy that recognizing a just compensation claim would unduly impede the government’s ability to act in the public interest.

Sorry, federal government — your seemingly tireless efforts to restrict private-property rights got the smackdown, at least for today.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Front Page News; Government
KEYWORDS: propertyrights; scotus; supremecourt
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1 posted on 12/04/2012 5:25:22 PM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

I can’t remember, but ... isn’t this the second or third case Kagan has not taken part in ?


2 posted on 12/04/2012 5:32:30 PM PST by knarf (I say things that are true ... I have no proof ... but they're true)
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To: SeekAndFind

Color me surprised that any 0bama appointee would admit private property exists.


3 posted on 12/04/2012 5:33:04 PM PST by Uncle Miltie (Working is for suckers.)
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To: SeekAndFind

OMG RBG sounds almost Constitutional!


4 posted on 12/04/2012 5:35:17 PM PST by SubMareener (Save us from Quarterly Freepathons! Become a MONTHLY DONOR!)
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To: SeekAndFind

Government suing government. I guess we all win, or lose.


5 posted on 12/04/2012 5:37:05 PM PST by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: SeekAndFind

FUFG!


6 posted on 12/04/2012 5:38:34 PM PST by Obama_Is_Sabotaging_America (IMPEACH OBAMA)
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To: SeekAndFind

I suspect that the liberal justices may have joined in because the Federal government flooded a state forest. That makes it an environmental no-no.


7 posted on 12/04/2012 5:38:35 PM PST by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: blueunicorn6
Government suing government. I guess we all win, or lose.

As long as they are buggering each other, we, the people, get a little breathing room.

/johnny

8 posted on 12/04/2012 5:41:30 PM PST by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: SeekAndFind

I don’t see how the government can mandate we buy stuff but can’t take stuff. How is the first one not a taking?


9 posted on 12/04/2012 5:45:31 PM PST by GeronL (http://asspos.blogspot.com)
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To: GeronL

Try mining the coal under your farm if the land is designated “prime farm land.” Now, that is taking.


10 posted on 12/04/2012 5:49:29 PM PST by Eric in the Ozarks (In the game of life, there are no betting limits)
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To: SeekAndFind

I hope this ruling puts a damper on the efforts of environmentalists to return rivers to a “more natural flow”, periodically flooding areas to mimic the spring flood patterns that are now under human control. Deliberately flooding land and damaging it is going to cost you. This should slow down the rewilding of our rivers.


11 posted on 12/04/2012 5:56:45 PM PST by tbw2
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To: knarf
I can’t remember, but ... isn’t this the second or third case Kagan has not taken part in ?

There have been many in which she was disqualified because she worked on the case as as a Government lawyer.

12 posted on 12/04/2012 6:07:25 PM PST by Lurking Libertarian (Non sub homine, sed sub Deo et lege)
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To: SeekAndFind
The only thing unclear about this decision is whether the decision against "taking without compensation" prohibits the States from engaging in the same unconstitutional behavior; the State of California or rathers its army of petty tyrants, for decades now has fraudulently caused the zoning for land they covet to be changed to reduce its value before "purchasing" it (for the public good, of course"

That it precisely why the takings clause is in the Constitution, to prevent that sort of abuse!

Poor California, they might see a rash of claims for past unconstitutional crimes.
As I recall, just in the last few days, a family was cheated out of the use of their oyster farm (Marin County, California) using this ploy (or the lame environmental or "global warming excuse," after being in business for several generations.

Time to talk to the Pacific Legal Foundation.

13 posted on 12/04/2012 6:08:14 PM PST by publius911 (Formerly Publius 6961, formerly jennsdad)
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To: SubMareener
OMG RBG sounds almost Constitutional!

Ruth Bader Ginsburg?
Or some obscure texting geek acronym?

14 posted on 12/04/2012 6:16:29 PM PST by publius911 (Formerly Publius 6961, formerly jennsdad)
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To: publius911

Or perhaps a weapon preferred by a horribly congested terrorist: The Rogged Brabelled Genade.


15 posted on 12/04/2012 6:25:35 PM PST by Redcloak (Winter is coming.)
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To: Cicero
I suspect that the liberal justices may have joined in because the Federal government flooded a state forest. That makes it an environmental no-no.

Micromanaging nature is fraught with contradictions, but the sanctimonious a*****e petty bureaucrats all practice industrial strength cognitive dissonance.
Damming rivers and NOT flooding national forests is also a no-no, depending on time and place.

No one ever claimed these ignorant, brain-dead losers are consistent.

16 posted on 12/04/2012 6:27:22 PM PST by publius911 (Formerly Publius 6961, formerly jennsdad)
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To: JRandomFreeper
As long as they are buggering each other, we, the people, get a little breathing room.

A very shortsighted attitude.

We, the people, pay exorbitant amounts to fund both sides of suits that go on for a decade or more, in some instances.

Job security. Screw We the People!

17 posted on 12/04/2012 6:32:17 PM PST by publius911 (Formerly Publius 6961, formerly jennsdad)
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To: publius911
A very shortsighted attitude.

I don't even buy green bananas. I might not last long enough to enjoy them.

I maintain that paying a handful of lawyers to bicker is much cheaper than the damage governments can do to Americans by killing production, limiting freedom, and all those other things that governments do when they aren't fighting each other.

/johnny

18 posted on 12/04/2012 6:37:02 PM PST by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: knarf
Justice Elena Kagan who did not take part in the case

She must have had an important appointment at the nail salon. She certainly wouldn't recuse herself for anything approaching integrity.

19 posted on 12/04/2012 6:49:45 PM PST by Bloody Sam Roberts (A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well.)
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To: JRandomFreeper
I maintain that paying a handful of lawyers to bicker is much cheaper than the damage governments can do to Americans by killing production, limiting freedom, and all those other things that governments do when they aren't fighting each other.

I contend that eliminating our freedoms a tiny bit at a time, setting and building on precedent, is what makes all those horrible things you listed possible. The elected leaders come and go, but the bureaucracy lives forever.

e.g., take James Hansen at NASA...

20 posted on 12/04/2012 6:52:34 PM PST by publius911 (Formerly Publius 6961, formerly jennsdad)
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