Constitutional Places: Barron v. Baltimore

May 5th, 2014

Here is a map of Baltimore, showing the location of Barron’s wharf on the harbor.

baltimore-map-1

This is a copy of Bouldin Atlas (1833) showing Craig and Barron’s wharf. You can download a high-resolution version of the map here.

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And here is the trial court opinion, which interestingly enough found that the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 8th amendments, but not the 1st, 6th, 7th, and 9th Amendments applied to the federal government.

barron-opinionEven more interesting, the opinion spells out what we would today call a regulatory taking–“deprived of the profits growing out of its tenure.” This is very similar to Holmes’s test in Penn Coal v. Mahon of a deprivation that “goes too far.”

 

barron-0044

You can see the entire record here.