Economic Rights

Amendment XIV.

Section 1. . . . [N]or shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law . . . .

Amendment V.

Section 1.  No person shall . . . be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.

Article I.

Section 10.  No State shall . . . pass any . . . Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts . . . .

Current Issues

Takings Clause, "Public Use," and Redevelopment.  The U.S. Supreme Court denied review on June 23, 2008, of a Second Circuit decision upholding a local redevelopment plan against a Takings Clause challenge.  The case was closely watched as one of the first significant post-Kelo cases to come before the Court.  The Second Circuit held that the "exercise of the eminent domain power" in support of the plan was "rationally related to a conceivable public purpose," and that the petitioners' bare pretext claim--that the plan was really adopted to benefit a private developer--intruded too much into the political process.  Click here for an edited version of the opinion.