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Thursday, June 23, 2005
Observations on Kelo
Kelo | Posted by Ilya Somin at 03:04 PM
I am sorry to come late to today's blogging, due to a conflicting engagement.
A few observations on Kelo. But first, the obligatory disclaimer: I authored an amicus brief in Kelo on behalf of urban development specialist Jane Jacobs (author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities). I have also, in the past, done pro bono work on takings cases for the Institute for Justice, the libertarian public interest group that represented Kelo.
Like the other participants, I was a bit surprised by the closeness of the vote, and even more so by the fact that all four dissenting justices would not only invalidate the condemnations in the present case but also categorically forbid all "economic development takings." In doing so, Justice O'Connor - author of the principal dissent - pointedly condemned some of the more expansive language on the scope of condemnation power used in the Court's previous opinions - especially Midkiff, which he herself authored. It's not often that a Supreme Court justice repudiates some of her own work!
The majority opinion by Justice Stevens leaves very little room for public use challenges to takings under the federal Constitution. However, the concurrence by Justice Kennedy is considerably more difficult to interpret.
On the one hand, Kennedy joins the majority opinion in full and also states that public use issues should be considered under a "rational basis" test, normally a mark of extreme deference. On the other , he makes clear that the type of rational basis employed should be "meaningful rational basis review" of the sort employed under the Equal Protection Clause in cases like Cleburne v. Cleburne Living Ctr (which he cites), where the Court imposed considerably more searching scrutiny on government actions than is usually imposed by the standard rational basis test.
Kennedy stresses that "[a] court confronted with a plausible accusation of impermissible favoritism to private parties should treat the objection as a serious one and review the record to see if it has merit, though with the presumption that the government's actions were reasonable and intended to serve a public purpose." He even holds out the possiblity that "[t]here may be private transfers in which the risk of undetected impermissible favoritism to private parties is so acute that a presumption (rebuttable or otherwise) of invalidity is warranted under the Public Use Clause."
Given that Kennedy's concurrence is the opinion of the justice concurring on the "narrowest grounds" in a 5-4 decision, it is arguably binding as law on lower courts (though this point is somewhat confusing because Kennedy also joined J. Stevens' majority opinion). Thus, the full significance of Kelo will not become clear until lower courts have had a chance to try to interpret and apply Kennedy's admittedly vague opinion.
Clarification: I think I probably went too far in suggesting that Kennedy's opinion is "probably binding . . . on lower courts." Because Kennedy also joined Stevens' majority opinion, this is most likely not so. However, given that Kennedy's concurrence is the swing vote in a 5-4 case, lower courts are likely to look to it in determining how broadly to apply the judicial deference mandated by the majority.
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Comments
"it is arguably binding as law on lower courts (though this point is somewhat confusing because Kennedy also joined J. Stevens' majority opinion)"
Really? Seems to me that Stevens got five votes, so his opinion is the law, end of story. Certainly, that's what I'd argue if I were representing a city in a case like this. If Kennedy wanted to be the controlling vote, he should have concurred in the judgment. By joining, I think he rendered his own views an interesting read but legally irrelevant, except to the extent that he's signaling that he might vote differently in some future case on different facts. Big deal. Obviously most of these cases will never reach the Supreme Court, so most of them don't have to worry about what Tony Kennedy thinks.
Posted by: David at June 23, 2005 06:51 PM