Barron v. Baltimore
| Barron v. Baltimore | |
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| Argued February 11, 1833 Decided February 16, 1833 |
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| Full case name | John Barron, survivor of John Craig, for the use of Luke Tiernan, Executor of John Craig v. The Mayor and City Council of Baltimore |
| Citations | 32 U.S. 243 (more)
8 L. Ed. 672
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| Prior history | Accepted on writ of error to the Court of Appeals for the Western Shore of the State of Maryland. |
| Holding | |
| State governments are not bound by the Fifth Amendment's requirement for just compensation in cases of eminent domain. | |
| Court membership | |
| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Marshall, joined by unanimous |
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Superseded by
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| U.S. Const. amend. XIV | |
Barron v. Baltimore, 32 U.S. (7 Pet.) 243 (1833), is a landmark United States Supreme Court case in which helped define the concept of Federalism in the United States in U.S. constitutional law. The Court established a precedent that the United States Bill of Rights could not be applied to state governments.
John Barron and John Craig, who co-owned a profitable wharf in the Baltimore harbor, sued the mayor of Baltimore for damages, claiming that when the city had diverted the flow of streams while engaging in street construction, it had created mounds of sand and earth near his wharf making the water too shallow for most vessels. The trial court awarded Barron damages of $4,500, but the appellate court reversed the ruling.
The Supreme Court decided that the Bill of Rights, specifically the Fifth Amendment's guarantee that government takings of private property for public use require just compensation, are restrictions on the federal government alone. Writing for a unanimous court, Chief Justice John Marshall held that the first ten "amendments contain no expression indicating an intention to apply them to the State governments. This court cannot so apply them." Barron v. Baltimore, 32 U.S. 243, 250.
To demonstrate that Constitutional limits did not apply to states unless expressly stated, Marshall used the example of Article I, Sections 9 and 10:
The third clause (of Section 9), for example, declares that “no bill of attainder or ex post facto law shall be passed.” No language can be more general; yet the demonstration is complete that it applies solely to the government of the United States... the succeeding section, the avowed purpose of which is to restrain state legislation... declares that “no state shall pass any bill of attainder or ex post facto law.” This provision, then, of the ninth section, however comprehensive its language, contains no restriction on state legislation.
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