Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/524bv.pdf
Page Number: 208.0

524US1

Unit: $U81

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Cite as: 524 U. S. 156 (1998)

163

Opinion of the Court

Texas who maintains an IOLTA account into which he
Id., at 82. Summers is a
regularly deposits client funds.
Texas citizen and businessman whose work requires him
to make regular use of the services of an attorney.
In Jan-
uary 1994, Summers learned that a retainer he had depos-
ited with his attorney was being held in an IOLTA account.
Id., at 85.
In February 1994, respondents ﬁled this suit
against petitioners—TEAJF, W. Frank Newton, in his ofﬁ-
cial capacity as chairman of TEAJF, and the nine Justices
of the Supreme Court of Texas. Respondents alleged, inter
alia, that the Texas IOLTA program violated their rights
under the Fifth Amendment, by taking their property with-
out just compensation.

The District Court granted summary judgment to peti-
tioners, reasoning that respondents had no property inter-
est in the interest proceeds generated by the funds held in
IOLTA accounts. Washington Legal Foundation v. Texas
Equal Access to Justice Foundation, 873 F. Supp. 1 (WD
Tex. 1995). The Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit re-
versed, concluding that “any interest that accrues belongs
to the owner of the principal.” Washington Legal Foun-
dation v. Texas Equal Access to Justice Foundation, 94 F.
3d 996, 1004 (1996). Because of a split over whether the
interest income generated by funds held in IOLTA ac-
counts is private property for purposes of the Fifth Amend-
ment’s Takings Clause,3 we granted certiorari.
521 U. S.
1117 (1997).

II

The Fifth Amendment, made applicable to the States
through the Fourteenth Amendment, Chicago, B. & Q. R. Co.

3 Cone v. State Bar of Fla., 819 F. 2d 1002 (CA11), cert. denied, 484 U. S.
917 (1987); In re Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Accounts, 672 P. 2d 406 (Utah
1983); Petition of New Hampshire Bar Assn., 122 N. H., at 975–976, 453
A. 2d, at 1260–1261; In re Minnesota State Bar Assn., 332 N. W. 2d 151,
158 (Minn. 1982); In re Interest on Trust Accounts, 402 So. 2d 389, 395–396
(Fla. 1981).