Multi-Housing News is reporting that the U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear the latest challenge to the contentious rent control issue. MHN says the court appeared to remain open to future consideration of the key issues raised in the case. According to the report, in 74 Pinehurst et al. v. State of New York (plaintiffs) had argued that New York City’s rent control regulation violated the Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause, which prohibits takings of property without due process. The case is similar to one the court declined to hear last year.
The plaintiffs argued that New York City’s law constituted an unconstitutional taking by preventing owners from terminating a lease at the end of a fixed term, “except on grounds outside the owner’s control.”
In a comment accompanying the decision declining to hear the appeal, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the “constitutionality of regimes like New York City’s is an important and pressing question.” He added that “in an appropriate future case, we should grant certiorari to address this important question.”
But, Thomas said, to evaluate the challenges to the city’s rent regulations, the court would need to consider whether specific regulations “prevent petitioners from evicting actual tenants for particular reasons,” as well as a “clear understanding of how New York City regulations coordinate to completely bar landlords from evicting tenants.”
Click here to read the full report at Multihousing News.
