Join us for the final round of the Edward W. Hinton Moot Court Competition.  The 2015 case is Horne v. Department of Agriculture, No. 14-275.

Questions presented:

(1a) Whether the government’s “categorical duty” under the Fifth Amendment to pay just compensation when it “physically takes possession of an interest in property” applies only to real property and not to personal property;

(1b) whether the government may avoid the categorical duty to pay just compensation for a physical taking of property by reserving to the property owner a contingent interest in a portion of the value of the property, set at the government's discretion.

(2) Whether a governmental mandate to relinquish specific, identifiable property as a “condition” on permission to engage in commerce effects a per se taking.

Petitioners include Jessica Guilitto and Alex Parkinson.  Respondents include Nicholas Caselli and Elliot Gaiser.  The final round will be judged by Justice Alison H. Eid, Justice Thomas R. Lee, and Justice Beth Robinson.

Reception to follow.