State property rights - What, where, and how?

Differentiating between legitimate public regulation of private property and regulatory takings has become an important and controversial issue (Pilon 1988). Although a concern for more than 100 years (Mercuro 1992), it has been recognized by the Supreme Court only since Justice Holmes's comments in Pennsylvania Coal Co. v. Mahon (260 US 393 [1922]). In that landmark ruling, the Court recognized that regulation can go ''too far'' and constitute a taking of private property, for which the owner must be afforded just compensation according to the Fifth Amendment. Justice Holmes indicated that the state's police power and the taking of private property may be thought of as a continuum-that is, exceeding the former results in the latter. The analysis applies equally to exercises of state police power and federal regulatory power under other provisions of the Constitution.