Andrus v. Allard

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Andrus v. Allard (1979) is a U.S. Supreme Court case about property rights and government rules. The Eagle Protection Act bans the sale of eagle parts, and Allard, who owned eagle feathers, challenged the law, claiming it took his private property without compensation.

The Court held that a ban on selling items that are already in private hands is not automatically a taking under the Fifth Amendment, as long as the government does not require surrender of the items to the government. The decision was written by Justice Brennan and joined by the entire Court (unanimous). The ruling involved the Takings Clause and the Eagle Protection Act, and it shows that not every regulation that limits how property can be used qualifies as a taking that would require compensation.