Are All Below-Market Rent Control Schemes At Risk?
Although Chevron and Hacienda specifically address the substantially advances standard of review, the principles underlying these cases also approve review of rent control laws under a potential taking standard, rather than a due process violation under the Federal Constitution. The importance of this rather technical legal distinction is that it changes the legal framework from which such laws are reviewed. The United States Supreme Court noted in Armstrong v. United States, 364 U.S. 40, 80 S.Ct. 1563 (1960) observed: The Fifth Amendments guarantee that private property shall not be taken for a public use without just compensation was designed to bar Government from forcing some people alone to bear public burdens which, in all fairness and justice, should be borne by the public as a whole. The U. S. Supreme Court echoed that sentiment more than a decade ago in the context of a community rent control case, Yee v. City of Escondido, 503 U.S. 519 (1992): Compensation is required only if
