Linda Lingle, Governor of Hawaii, et al. v. Chevron U.S.A. Inc. (544 U.S. 528)

U.S. Supreme Court · decided May 23, 2005 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)

Citation
544 U.S. 528 · 125 S. Ct. 2074
Decided
May 23, 2005
Term
October Term 2004
Vote
9–0
Majority author
Justice O'Connor
Issue area
Due Process
Disposition
Reversed and remanded
Outcome
Petitioning party won
Ideological direction
Liberal

Opinion excerpt

Justice O’Connor delivered the opinion of the Court. On occasion, a would-be doctrinal rule or test finds its way into our case law through simple repetition of a phrase— however fortuitously coined. A quarter century ago, in Agins v. City of Tiburon, 447 U. S. 255 (1980), the Court declared that government regulation of private property “effects a taking if [such regulation] does not substantially advance legitimate state interests____” Id., at 260. Through reiteration in a half dozen or so decisions since Agins, this language has been ensconced in our Fifth Amendment takings jurisprudence. See Monterey v. Del Monte Dunes at Monterey, Ltd., 526 U. S. 687, 704 (1999) (citing cases). In the case before us, the lower courts applied Agins’ “substantially advances” formula to strike down a Hawaii statute that limits the rent that oil companies may charge to dealers who lease service stations owned by the companies. The lower courts held that the rent cap effects an uncompensated taking of private property in violation of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments because it does not substantially advance Hawaii’s asserted interest in controlling retail gasoline prices. This case requires us to decide whether the “substantially advances” formula announced in Agins is an appropriate test for determining whether a regulation effects a Fifth Amendment taking. We conclude that it is not. I…

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