ABSTRACT
In Nollan v. California Coastal Commission, 483 US 825, the US Supreme Court defined some of the limits of the Takings Clause—the last clause of the Fifth Amendment that prohibits the government's taking of private property for a public use without paying the owner just compensation. The Nollan family owned a beachfront lot that was a quarter-mile south of an oceanside public park and 1,800 feet north of another public beach. The California Coastal Commission granted the Nollans' rebuilding permit subject to the condition that the Nollans grant the public a permanent easement to pass across the portion of their property between the mean high tide line and their seawall. The Court ruled that the government's power to forbid particular land uses in order to advance a legitimate governmental purpose included the power to condition the land use on some concession by the landowner.
