Berman v. Parker - Significance, Rebuilding The Nation's Capital, There Are No Limits On The Public's Needs

douglas william appellants store

Appellants

Berman and other owners of a department store in Washington, D.C.

Appellees

The National Capital Planning Commission, the Commissioners of the District of Columbia, the District of Columbia Redevelopment Land Agency

Appellants' Claim

The government's taking of their store was unconstitutional because it was contrary to the guarantees of the Fifth Amendment.

Chief Lawyers for Appellants

James C. Toomey, Joseph H. Schneider, Albert Ginsberg

Chief Lawyer for Appellees

Simon Sobeloff, Solicitor General

Justices for the Court

Hugo Lafayette Black, Harold Burton, Tom C. Clark, William O. Douglas (writing for the Court), Felix Frankfurter, Sherman Minton, Stanley Forman Reed, Earl Warren

Justices Dissenting

None (John Marshall Harlan II not yet appointed)

Place

Washington, D.C.

Date of Decision

22 November 1954

Decision

Congress and its agencies (which functioned as the District's local government) may take appellants' department store and the land as long as they pay compensation to the owners.

Related Cases

Penn Central Transportation Co. v. New York City, 438 U.S. 104 (1978).
Hawaii Housing Authority v. Midkiff, 467 U.S. 229 (1984).

Berman v. Parker - Significance

The decision determined that state legislatures may exercise wide latitude in determining what serves a "public purpose." And they also have broad leeway in choosing the means to achieve these "public ends." As long as they pay compensation, legislatures may lawfully take property from a private owner and give it to another private owner for his private use. The Fifth Amendment limits the federal …

Berman v. Parker - Rebuilding The Nation's Capital

In 1950, the Planning Commission proposed to begin redevelopment in the District's southwestern area. In that section lived some 5,000 persons, 98 percent of whom were considered to be African American. Surveys prepared for the commission suggested that residential dwellings in the area were run down. According to these surveys, some 58 percent had only outdoor toilets. More than 80 percent had no…

Berman v. Parker - There Are No Limits On The Public's Needs

Douglas went on to argue that a legislature's police powers are total and unlimited. (His statement to this effect subsequently was much quoted.) Public safety, public health, morality, peace and quiet, law and order--these are some of the more conspicuous examples of the traditional application of the police power to municipal affairs. Yet they merely illustrate the scope of the power and do not …

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