Cite as: 526 U. S. 687 (1999)
Opinion of the Court
the heart of the dispute between plaintiff and defendant. Although these general observations provide some guidance on the proper allocation between judge and jury of the liability issues in this case, they do not establish a definitive answer.
2
We look next to our existing precedents. Although this Court has decided many regulatory takings cases, none of our decisions has addressed the proper allocation of liability determinations between judge and jury in explicit terms. This is not surprising. Most of our regulatory takings decisions have reviewed suits against the United States, see, e. g., United States v. Riverside Bayview Homes, Inc., 474 U. S. 121 (1985); Hodel v. Virginia Surface Mining & Reclamation Assn., Inc., 452 U. S. 264 (1981), suits decided by state courts, see, e. g., Dolan v. City of Tigard, 512 U. S. 374 (1994); Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council, 505 U. S. 1003 (1992); Nollan v. California Coastal Comm'n, 483 U. S. 825 (1987); First English Evangelical Lutheran Church of Glendale v. County of Los Angeles, 482 U. S. 304 (1987), or suits seeking only injunctive relief, see, e. g., Keystone Bituminous Coal Assn. v. DeBenedictis, 480 U. S. 470 (1987). It is settled law that the Seventh Amendment does not apply in these contexts. Lehman v. Nakshian, 453 U. S. 156, 160 (1981) (suits against the United States); Curtis, 415 U. S., at 192, n. 6 (suits brought in state court); Parsons, 3 Pet., at 447 (suits seeking only equitable relief).
In Williamson, we did review a regulatory takings case in which the plaintiff landowner sued a county planning commission in federal court for money damages under § 1983. 473 U. S., at 182. Whether the commission had denied the plaintiff all economically viable use of the property had been submitted to the jury. Id., at 191-192, and n. 12. Although the Court did not consider the point, it assumed the propriety of this procedure. E. g., id., at 191 ("It is not clear whether the jury would have found that the respondent had
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