This is a must-listen, the latest episode of John Ross’s Bound by Oath podcast. This season is covering property rights, and this episode details Berman v. Parker, which may be the first case in what we’ll call the “modern era” where the Supreme Court set the judicial hands-off tone for public use challenges.
The guest this episode is our friend and colleague Amy Lavine, who wrote what we think is the seminal article deconstructing Berman (we include it as required reading in our William and Mary Eminent Domain course).
This episode is a great companion piece to BBO’s episodes on Euclid (zoning), and Pennsylvania Coal (reg takings).
On this episode: Berman v. Parker, the Supreme Court’s decision in 1954 to abandon previous constitutional limits on the government’s power to take property from Person A to give it to Person B. The decision greenlit the era of urban renewal, which saw over a thousand cities across the country seize and bulldoze entire neighborhoods en masse.
Be sure to listen to this episode (and indeed the entire season).