Cite as: 524 U. S. 156 (1998)
Opinion of the Court
Finally, petitioners argue that the interest income transferred to the TEAJF is not "private property" because the client funds held in IOLTA accounts "cannot reasonably be expected to generate interest income on their own." Brief for Petitioners 18. As an initial matter, petitioners' assertion that client funds held in IOLTA accounts cannot be expected to generate interest income is plainly incorrect under the express terms of the Texas IOLTA rules. Texas IOLTA Rule 6 requires that client funds held by an attorney be deposited in an IOLTA account "if the interest which might be earned" is insufficient to offset the "cost of establishing and maintaining the account, service charges, accounting costs and tax reporting costs which would be incurred in attempting to obtain the interest on such funds for the client." In other words, it is not that the client funds to be placed in IOLTA accounts cannot generate interest, but that they cannot generate net interest.
Whether client funds held in IOLTA accounts could generate net interest is a matter of some dispute. As written, the Texas IOLTA program requires the calculation as to net interest to be made "without regard to funds of other clients which may be held by the attorney." Texas IOLTA Rule 6. This provision would deny to an attorney the traditional practice of pooling funds of several clients in one account, a practice which might produce net interest when opening an account for each client would not. But in the District Court, petitioners agreed that this portion of the rule was not to be enforced, and that an attorney could make the necessary calculation on the basis of pooled accounts. Petitioners made a similar concession during oral argument here. Tr. of Oral Arg. 13-16. We accept this concession but find that it does not avail petitioners.
We have never held that a physical item is not "property" simply because it lacks a positive economic or market value. For example, in Loretto v. Teleprompter Manhattan CATV
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