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Article: The Tulare case: water rights, the Endangered Species Act, and the Fifth Amendment.
- Article from:
- Environmental Law
- Article date:
- June 22, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Lewis & Clark Northwestern School of Law. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The Article discusses the recent United States Court of Federal Claims' decision in Tulare Lake Basin Water Storage District v. United States. Tulare is the first published court decision holding that efforts to protect species under the Endangered Species Act constitute a taking of property in violation of the Fifth Amendment. The Article critiques the court's holding and concludes that the Tulare decision was fundamentally flawed in at least two respects. First, the court erred in finding that the Tulare plaintiffs' water contracts constituted protectable property interests given the limited, contextual nature of such rights under California water law. Second, the court ...