The Fifth and 14th Amendments to the United States Constitution prohibit both the federal and all state governments in the United States from taking “private property for public use without just compensation.”[1] In Sheetz v. County of El Dorado, decided on April 12, 2024, the Court dismissed the notion espoused by the California courts below that the “Takings Clause” could never be applied to invalidate legislation enacted by a legislative body. The Court held that the Takings Clause could be so applied in appropriate circumstances, without specifying what those circumstances might be.
COMMENT: The Court erred in failing to address the subsidiary question before it, which was whether the facts of the case actually before the Court might justify the invalidation of the legislative enactment that started the case. The legislative body for El Dorado County, California had enacted a mandatory “fee” on the approval of building permits in certain areas of the county, and the fee rates were not specifically related to the specific land on which any single permit might be granted. A landowner in a low-density residential zone wanted to install a mobile home on his land, and objected to being charged the fee set for building permits in that zone, disregarding the character and value of the building he wanted to build. Those facts did not reflect a “taking of private property” by the County. Instead, they reflected a tax on building development in general. Taxes cannot possibly be forbidden “takings” of “private property. The Court should have so held.
Dan Rhea
[1] U.S. Const., Amendment V, Clause 4. Section 1 of the 14th Amendment prohibits the states from abridging the “privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States.”
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