164
Opinion of the Court
v. Chicago, 166 U. S. 226, 239 (1897), provides that "private property" shall not "be taken for public use, without just compensation." Because the Constitution protects rather than creates property interests, the existence of a property interest is determined by reference to "existing rules or understandings that stem from an independent source such as state law." Board of Regents of State Colleges v. Roth, 408 U. S. 564, 577 (1972).
All agree that under Texas law the principal held in IOLTA trust accounts is the "private property" of the client. Texas IOLTA Rule 4 (discussing circumstances under which "client funds" must be deposited in an IOLTA account); Texas Bar Rule 1.14(a) (lawyers "shall hold funds . . . belonging in whole or in part to clients . . . separate from the lawyer's own property"); see also Brief for United States as Amicus Curiae 10 ("There can be no doubt that the client funds underlying the IOLTA program are the property of respondents"). When deposited in an IOLTA account, these funds remain in the control of a private attorney and are freely available to the client upon demand. As to the principal, then, the IOLTA rules at most "regulate the use of [the] property." Yee v. Escondido, 503 U. S. 519, 522 (1992). Respondents do not contend that the State's regulation of the manner in which attorneys hold and manage client funds amounts to a taking of private property. The question in this case is whether the interest on an IOLTA account is "private property" of the client for whom the principal is being held.4
4 We granted certiorari in this case to answer the question whether "interest earned on client trust funds held by lawyers in IOLTA accounts [is] a property interest of the client or lawyer, cognizable under the . . . Fifth Amendmen[t] to the U. S. Constitution . . . ." Pet. for Cert. i. Justice Souter contends that we should vacate the judgment of the Court of Appeals because it was improper for that court to have answered this question apart from the takings and just compensation questions. Petitioners, however, did not argue in their petition for certiorari that it was error for the Fifth Circuit to address the property question alone. Because, under this Court's Rule 14(1)(a), our practice is to consider "[o]nly
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