Property Law Developments—Joseph William Singer

The Federal Circuit ruled in Kam-Almaz v. U.S. 2012 U.S. App. LEXIS 12581 (Fed. Cir. 2012), that there was no unconstitutional taking of property when an individual’s computer was seized and examined at an airport immigration and customs station and returned with the hard drive damaged, resulting in the loss of irretrievable business records.The court held that property seized “pursuant to the police power” is not taken “for public use” within the meaning of the takings clause. Government can seize property for law enforcement purposes without implicating the takings clause, even if the property is thereby destroyed.