Cite as: 535 U. S. 302 (2002)
Rehnquist, C. J., dissenting
"temporary" and "permanent" prohibitions is tenuous. The "temporary" prohibition in this case that the Court finds is not a taking lasted almost six years.2 The "permanent" prohibition that the Court held to be a taking in Lucas lasted less than two years. See 505 U. S., at 1011-1012. The "permanent" prohibition in Lucas lasted less than two years because the law, as it often does, changed. The South Carolina Legislature in 1990 decided to amend the 1988 Beachfront Management Act to allow the issuance of " 'special permits' for the construction or reconstruction of habitable structures seaward of the baseline." Id., at 1011-1012. Land-use regulations are not irrevocable. And the government can even abandon condemned land. See United States v. Dow, 357 U. S. 17, 26 (1958). Under the Court's decision today, the takings question turns entirely on the initial label given a regulation, a label that is often without much meaning. There is every incentive for government to simply label any prohibition on development "temporary," or to fix a set number of years. As in this case, this initial designation does not preclude the government from repeatedly extending the "temporary" prohibition into a long-term ban on all development. The Court now holds that such a designation by the government is conclusive even though in fact the moratorium greatly exceeds the time initially specified. Apparently, the Court would not view even a 10-year moratorium as a taking under Lucas because the moratorium is not "permanent."
Our opinion in First English Evangelical Lutheran Church of Glendale v. County of Los Angeles, 482 U. S. 304 (1987), rejects any distinction between temporary and permanent takings when a landowner is deprived of all economically beneficial use of his land. First English stated that " 'temporary takings which, as here, deny a landowner all use of his property, are not different in kind from permanent
2 Even under the Court's mistaken view that the ban on development lasted only 32 months, the ban in this case exceeded the ban in Lucas.
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