United States v. Causby

Background

A family owned 2.8 acres with a house, barn, trees, and a chicken business near a municipal airport used by the United States under a 1942 lease. Military planes regularly flew a glide path directly over the property at about 83 feet, sometimes close enough to strip leaves from trees. The noise and glare were intense; the family lost sleep, the chickens panicked and about 150 died, and the owners abandoned the commercial chicken operation. The Court of Claims found the property’s value had dropped and awarded $2,000, concluding the Government had taken an easement over the land.

Reasoning

The Supreme Court addressed whether repeated, low flights can count as a “taking” under the Fifth Amendment (which requires compensation when the Government takes private property for public use). The Court said Congress made most high airspace a public highway, but landowners still own the immediate airspace they can use. If flights are so low and frequent that they directly and immediately interfere with land use, that can be a taking. The Court agreed the record showed a servitude imposed and a diminution in value, but reversed because the lower court failed to state clear findings about the easement’s precise nature, frequency, altitude limits, or whether it was permanent or temporary, and remanded for those findings.

Real world impact

The decision recognizes that landowners near runways may obtain compensation when continuous low flights disrupt use and lower property value. It also confirms that ordinary high-altitude flights generally remain part of the public domain. The ruling is not a final award; the lower court must clarify facts before any final compensation is set.

Dissents or concurrances

Justice Black dissented, arguing courts should not treat noise and glare as constitutional takings and that Congress and agencies should control airspace rules and remedies instead of imposing broad constitutional limits.