Section 5 United States Constitution

• Library: Condemnation Practice 2009

The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides: “nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.” While this limitation does not prevent the sovereign from taking private property for public use, it does provide the property owner with an absolute right to “just compensation.” Nika Corp. v. City of Kansas City, Mo., 582 F. Supp. 343 (W.D. Mo. 1983). Consequently, a landowner that has been deprived of a protectable interest in the landowner’s property can assert the right to just compensation against the federal government under the Fifth Amendment and against the state and its political subdivisions under the Fourteenth Amendment. Ruckelshaus v. Monsanto Co., 467 U.S. 986 (1984); Gordon v....