644
Opinion of Stevens, J.
exercised its authority to make exceptions to that rule under certain circumstances. Cf. App. to Brief for Respondents A-13 (laying out narrow circumstances under which the Council retains the discretion to grant a "special exception"). Under the reading of the regulations most favorable to Palazzolo, he acquired no more than the right to a discretionary determination by the Council as to whether to permit him to fill the wetlands. As his two hearings before that body attest, he was given the opportunity to make a presentation and receive such a determination. Thus, the Council properly respected whatever limited rights he may have retained with regard to filling the wetlands. Cf. Lujan v. G & G Fire Sprinklers, Inc., 532 U. S. 189 (2001) (holding, in a different context, that, if a party's only relevant property interest is a claim of entitlement to bring an action, the provision of a forum for hearing that action is all that is required to vindicate that property interest); Lopez v. Davis, 531 U. S. 230 (2001) (involving a federal statute that created an entitlement to a discretionary hearing without creating any entitlement to relief).7
Though the majority leaves open the possibility that the scope of today's holding may prove limited, see ante, at 629- 630 (discussing limitations implicit in "background principles" exception); see also ante, at 632-636 (O'Connor, J., concurring) (discussing importance of the timing of regula-7 This is not to suggest that a regulatory body can insulate all of its land-use decisions from the Takings Clause simply by referencing longstanding statutory provisions. If the determination by the regulators to reject the project involves such an unforseeable interpretation or extension of the regulation as to amount to a change in the law, then it is appropriate to consider the decision of that body, rather than the adoption of the regulation, as the discrete event that deprived the owner of a pre-existing interest in property. But, if that is petitioner's theory, his claim is not ripe for the reasons stated by Justice Ginsburg in her dissenting opinion, post, p. 645. As I read petitioner's complaint and the Court's disposition of the ripeness issue, it is the regulations themselves that allegedly deprived the owner of the parcel of the right to fill the wetlands.
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