Babbitt v. Youpee, 519 U.S. 234, 10 (1997)

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Cite as: 519 U. S. 234 (1997)

Opinion of the Court

On the petition of the United States, we granted certiorari, 517 U. S. 1232 (1996), and now affirm.

III

In determining whether the 1984 amendments to § 207 render the provision constitutional, we are guided by Irving.3 The United States maintains that the amendments, though enacted three years prior to the Irving decision, effectively anticipated the concerns expressed in the Court's opinion. As already noted, amended § 207 differs from the original in three relevant respects: It looks back five years instead of one to determine the income produced from a small interest, and creates a rebuttable presumption that this income stream will continue; it permits devise of otherwise escheatable interests to persons who already own an interest in the same parcel; and it authorizes tribes to develop their own codes governing the disposition of fractional interests. These modifications, according to the United States, rescue amended § 207 from the fate of its predecessor. The Government maintains that the revisions moderate the economic impact of the provision and temper the character of the Government's regulation; the latter factor weighed most heavily against the constitutionality of the original version of § 207.

The narrow revisions Congress made to § 207, without benefit of our ruling in Irving, do not warrant a disposition different from the one this Court announced and explained in Irving. Amended § 207 permits a five-year window rather than a one-year window to assess the income-generating capacity of the interest. As the Ninth Circuit observed, however, argument that this change substantially mitigates the economic impact of § 207 "misses the point." 67 F. 3d, at

3 In Irving we relied on Penn Central Transp. Co. v. New York City, 438 U. S. 104 (1978). Because we find Irving dispositive, we do not reach respondents' argument that amended § 207 effects a "categorical" taking, and is therefore subject to the more stringent analysis employed in Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council, 505 U. S. 1003 (1992).

243

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