City of El Paso v. Simmons

I have previously had a number of occasions to dissent from judgments of this Court balancing away the'•First Amendment’s unequivocally guaranteed rights of free speech, press, assembly and petition.1 In this case I am compelled to dissent from the Court’s balancing away the plain guarantee of Art. I, § 10, that

“No State shall . . . pass any . . . Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts . . . ,”

a balancing which results in the State of Texas’ taking a man’s private property for public use without compensation in violation of the equally plain guarantee of the Fifth Amendment, made…