In the Lucas v South Carolina Coastal Council decision (pp. 269-273 in your textbook) the Supreme Court deals with the challenges brought on by private property owners as a result of the National Environmental Protection Act. In this case, the Supreme Court deals with one of these challenges, and in the process recasts its mechanism for defining a taking under the Fifth Amendment.

1. Summarize the relevant facts of the case.
2. What are the central issues presented in the case that were heard by the court?
3. What was the outcome of the case?
4. According to the majority opinion in the Lucas case, what two types of regulatory action automatically trigger compensation as takings, without a court needing to examine the circumstances in a case-specific way?
5. Why does the dissent object to the takings approach laid out by the majority?
6. Can cities take private property and transfer it to private developers for the sake of economic revitalization? Offer support for the position you have taken?
7. What are the ethical issues surrounding the principle of using eminent domain to take away the property ownership rights of individuals?
8. How would you feel if you purchased land and then were told you could not build for environmental reasons or merely that the government would be taking the property away from you?