Constitutional Law — takings

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U.S. Supreme Court

Civil

Constitutional Law — takings

A government’s demand for property from a land-use permit applicant must satisfy the Nollan/Dolan requirements even when it denies the permit.

The principles that undergird Nollan and Dolan do not change depending on whether the government approves a permit on the condition that the applicant turn over property or denies a permit because the applicant refuses to do so. Recognizing such a distinction would enable the government to evade the Nollan/Dolan limitations simply by phrasing its demands for property as conditions precedent to permit approval. This Court’s unconstitutional conditions cases have long refused to attach significance to the distinction between conditions precedent and conditions subsequent. See, e.g., Frost & Frost Trucking Co. v. Railroad Comm’n of Cal., 271 U. S. 583, 592–593. It makes no difference that no property was actually taken in this case. Extortionate demands for property in the land-use permitting context run afoul of the Takings Clause not because they take property but because they impermissibly burden the right not to have property taken without just compensation. Nor does it matter that the District might have been able to deny Koontz’s application outright without giving him the option of securing a permit by agreeing to spend money improving public lands. It is settled that the unconstitutional conditions doctrine applies even when the government threatens to withhold a gratuitous benefit. See e.g., United States v. American Library Assn., Inc., 539 U. S. 194, 210.

77 So. 3d 1220, reversed and remanded.

11-1447 Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management District

Alito, J.; Kagan, J., dissenting.