Subtitle: “A rumble in the takings jungle” (by F. E. Guerra-Pujol)

Yo, what’s up? For my part, I recently discovered that my friend and colleague Ilya Somin (pictured below, left), a law professor at George Mason University, wrote up this short essay explaining why, under existing caselaw, the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment does not require compensation for coronavirus shutdowns. Given that I have been vigorously arguing that we should apply a takings framework to these state-ordered shutdowns (see here, here, here, and here), some kind of response by yours truly (pictured below, right) is in order. Although Professor Somin is making a descriptive argument (what the law is), while I have been presenting a normative argument (what the law should be), I will nevertheless do my best to reply to Prof Somin’s excellent essay in the next day or two …

Somin vs. Guerra-Pujol