Cite as: 535 U. S. 302 (2002)
Opinion of the Court
already endorsed their view, and that it is a logical application of the principle that the Takings Clause was "designed to bar Government from forcing some people alone to bear burdens which, in all fairness and justice, should be borne by the public as a whole." Armstrong v. United States, 364 U. S. 40, 49 (1960).
We shall first explain why our cases do not support their proposed categorical rule—indeed, fairly read, they implicitly reject it. Next, we shall explain why the Armstrong principle requires rejection of that rule as well as the less extreme position advanced by petitioners at oral argument. In our view the answer to the abstract question whether a temporary moratorium effects a taking is neither "yes, always" nor "no, never"; the answer depends upon the particular circumstances of the case.16 Resisting "[t]he temptation to adopt what amount to per se rules in either direction," Palazzolo v. Rhode Island, 533 U. S. 606, 636 (2001) (O'Connor, J., concurring), we conclude that the circumstances in this case are best analyzed within the Penn Central framework.
IV
The text of the Fifth Amendment itself provides a basis for drawing a distinction between physical takings and regulatory takings. Its plain language requires the payment of compensation whenever the government acquires private property for a public purpose, whether the acquisition is the result of a condemnation proceeding or a physical appropriation. But the Constitution contains no comparable reference to regulations that prohibit a property owner from
16 Despite our clear refusal to hold that a moratorium never effects a taking, The Chief Justice accuses us of "allow[ing] the government to '. . . take private property without paying for it,' " post, at 349. It may be true that under a Penn Central analysis petitioners' land was taken and compensation would be due. But petitioners failed to challenge the District Court's conclusion that there was no taking under Penn Central. Supra, at 317, and n. 14.
321
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