Issue: What constitutes a ‘protected property interest’?
| Area of Law: | Constitutional Law |
| Keywords: | Protected property interest; Benefit; Specific group of citizens |
| Jurisdiction: | Federal |
| Cited Cases: | None |
| Cited Statutes: | None |
| Date: | 10/01/2012 |
The Supreme Court has indicated that a benefit that a specific group of citizens become entitled to by reason of a statute will constitute a “protected property interest” which the government may not deny without due process. Board of Regents v. Roth, 408 U.S. 564, 577 (1972). The Court explained:
The Fourteenth Amendment’s procedural protection of property is a safeguard of the security of interests that a person has already acquired in specific benefits. These interests-property interests-may take many forms.
. . .
Certain attributes of ‘property’ interests protected by procedural due process emerge from these decisions. To have a property interest in a benefit, a person clearly must have more than an abstract need or desire for it. He must have more than a unilateral expectation of it. He must, instead, have a legitimate claim of entitlement to it. It is a purpose of the ancient institution of property to protect those claims upon which people rely in their daily lives, reliance that must not be arbitrarily undermined. It is a purpose of the constitutional right to a hearing to provide an opportunity for a person to vindicate those claims.
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