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Supreme Court hears arguments on whether Fifth Amendment itself creates a federal cause of action for just compensation
Summary
At oral argument in Devillea v. Texas, petitioners urged that the Fifth Amendment and First English require courts to award just compensation as a federal remedy; Texas and the U.S. government contended the Constitution does not, by itself, create a damages cause of action and pointed to state-law remedies and the Tucker Act.
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday heard competing views over whether the Fifth Amendment, by its own force, supplies a federal cause of action allowing property owners to obtain money damages for a taking.
Mister McNamara, counsel for the petitioners, told the justices that the Fifth Amendment "imposes an explicit duty to pay money," citing this Court’s First English decision as holding that just compensation is a mandatory remedy that courts may enforce. "First English says that the just compensation remedy is mandatory," McNamara said, arguing that when jurisdictional and pleading obstacles are removed, courts must be able to order payment for an ongoing taking rather than only provide retrospective or state-law remedies.
The argument centered on two competing visions. Petitioners…
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