The Taking Issue and Land Regulation in the U.S. Supreme Court

During its 1986 term, the U.S. Supreme court issued three decisions with potentially major implications for government regulation of sensitive areas such as wetlands and floodplains. Unfortunately, the Court has succeeded in raising as many questions as it answered, maybe more. While the facts of each case are quite distinct, all three involved claims that state or local land use regulation constituted an uncompensated taking in violation of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments.