Requiem for Regulation
7 Pages Posted: 6 Nov 2014
Date Written: November 2014
Abstract
This comment reviews U.S. Supreme Court decisions over the past 100 years which have considered the constitutional limitations on governmental powers. It finds that at the three-quarter mark of the 20th century, a remarkable set of Court precedents had swollen the regulatory powers of governments while shrinking private rights to property and contract. But since the Reagan years, a more conservative Court has undertaken to curtail governmental activity in general, and to limit federal, state, and local planning in particular. A number of 5-4 decisions expanded private property rights and contracted the scope of the federal “commerce power.” The comment considers whether today’s Roberts Court is composing a “requiem for regulation.”
Keywords: constitutional law, environmental law, land use, real property, property rights, commerce power, federalism, eminent domain, just compensation, regulatory takings
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