A loss for property rights in Murr v. Wisconsin

 
“The Supreme Court just issued its decision in Murr v. Wisconsin, by far the most important property rights case of the term. The opinion is both a setback for constitutional property rights and likely to create confusion and uncertainty going forward. The case arose from the Murr family’s efforts to sell one of two contiguous lots they own, only to find that the sale was blocked by land-use regulations that rendered the lot largely worthless. But the implications of the ruling reach far beyond these specific facts. Many property owners own contiguous lots that could potentially be affected by the decision, including homeowners, small businesses, charities, and others.

The Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment requires the government to pay “just compensation” any time it “takes” private property for public use. Murr considers the important issue of whether an action that might otherwise be a taking might cease to be one merely because the owner of the affected lot also happens to own other property contiguous to it. In at least some cases, today’s indeed ruling allows the government to avoid compensating property owners for the taking of their land, merely because they also own the lot next door. But the vague nature of the test established by the Court makes it very hard to figure out exactly when that might happen.”
 
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Somin, Ilya. The Washington Post 23 June 2017.
 
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