In a previous post, I outlined some of the many reasons why today's Supreme Court decision in Pung v. Isabella County, allowing below-market value compensation for tax foreclosure takings is wrong. The Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment requires "just compensation" and giving owners far less than the property's fair market value doesn't measure up. Here, I add an additional point: The problem with fair market value compensation is not that it is too much, but that - all too often - it is actually too little. This isn't just my idiosyncratic view. It's a common criticism of current takings doctrine by scholars across the political spectrum.
I noted that critique in the amicus brief I filed in Pung on behalf of myself, the Cato Institute, and a group of property and takings scholars, and covered it in more detail in Chapter 8 of my book my book The Grasping Hand: Kelo v. City of New London and the Limits of Eminent Domain. Here's a summary from a 2021 nonacademic article I wrote on the subject:
