United States v. 50 Acres of Land, Etc., the City of Duncanville

JOHN R. BROWN, Circuit Judge:

Today we find ourselves lodged among melon rinds, coffee grounds, countless tin cans and sundry other unlikely neighbors amidst the City of Duncanville sanitary landfill. In this ignoble setting, we examine one of our most treasured constitutional principles — the Fifth Amendment’s precept that private property shall not be taken for public purposes without just compensation. We consider the question of what constitutes the 1 payment of “just compensation” to a public condemnee who has a duty to replace a condemned public facility. Appellee, the United States,…