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Lucas V. South Carolina Coastal Council: Low Tide For The Takings Clause, Marshall Currey Cook

Mercer Law Review

In Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council, the United States Supreme Court held that when a state government regulation rendered a landowner's property totally valueless, the landowner must be compensated unless common law nuisance doctrine at the time of the taking prohibited the use forbidden by the regulation. The Supreme Court reversed the South Carolina Supreme Court and remanded the case to determine whether any principles of nuisance and property law existed that prohibited the forbidden use under the statute-the building of an occupiable improvement. This Casenote will only address the court's analysis of the Takings Clause part of …