Source: http://supreme.nolo.com/us/444/51/case.html
Timestamp: 2018-10-16 03:16:14
Document Index: 770657520

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 668', '§ 711', '§ 1538', '§ 1372', '§ 153', '§ 1539', '§ 1538']

ANDRUS V. ALLARD, 444 U. S. 51 - Volume 444 - 1979 - Full Text - US Supreme Court Center - USSC Cases - Nolo
US Supreme Court Center > Volume 444 > ANDRUS V. ALLARD, 444 U. S. 51 (1979) > Full Text
(a) In view of the exhaustive and careful enumeration of forbidden acts in the Eagle Protection Act, the narrow limitation of the proviso to "possession or transportation" compels the conclusion that, with respect to preexisting artifacts, Congress specifically declined to except any activities other than possession and transportation from the general ban. The legislative history shows that this precise use of terminology
The Eagle Protection Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act are conservation statutes designed to prevent the destruction
of certain species of birds. [Footnote 1] Challenged in this case is the validity of regulations promulgated by appellant Secretary of the Interior that prohibit commercial transactions in parts of birds legally killed before the birds came under the
Appellees are engaged in the trade of Indian artifacts: several own commercial enterprises, one is employed by such an enterprise, and one is a professional appraiser. A number of the artifacts are partly composed of the feathers of currently protected birds, but these artifacts existed before the statutory protections came into force. After two of the appellees who had sold "preexisting" artifacts were prosecuted for violations of the Eagle Protection Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, [Footnote 2] appellees brought this suit for declaratory and injunctive relief in the District Court for the District of Colorado. The complaint alleged that the statutes do not
Appellant Secretary of the Interior contends that both the Eagle Protection and Migratory Bird Treaty Acts contemplate
In view of the exhaustive and careful enumeration of forbidden acts in § 668(a), the narrow limitation of the proviso to "possession or transportation" compels the conclusion that, with respect to preexisting artifacts, Congress specifically declined to except any activities other than possession and transportation from the general statutory ban. To read a further exemption for preexisting artifacts into the Eagle Protection Act, "we would be forced to ignore the ordinary meaning of plain language." TVA v. Hill, 437 U. S. 153, 437 U. S. 173 (1978). Nor can there be any question of oversight or drafting error. Throughout the statute, the distinct concepts of
S.Rep. No. 1589, 76th Cong., 3d Sess., 1 (1940). (Emphasis added.) Further, when Congress amended the Eagle Protection Act in 1962 to cover golden eagles, it once again excepted only possession and transportation of preexisting artifacts from the general ban. 76 Stat. 1246. And it is particularly relevant that Congress has twice reviewed and amended the statute without rejecting the Department's view that it is authorized to bar the sale of preexisting artifacts. [Footnote 8] Cf. NLRB v. Bell Aerospace Co., 416 U. S. 267, 416 U. S. 275 (1974).
Appellees argue that, even if the age of feathers cannot be ascertained, it is still possible to date the Indian artifacts of which the feathers are a constituent. Thus, they contend that the goal of preventing evasion of the statute could have been achieved by means less onerous than a general sales ban: for example, by requiring documentation and appraisal of feathered artifacts. The short answer is that this legislation is not limited to the sale of feathers as part of artifacts; it broadly addresses sale or purchase of feathers and other bird parts in any shape or form. The prohibitions of the statute were devised to resist any evasion, whether in the sale of feathers as part of datable artifacts or in the sale of separate undatable bird products. Moreover, even if there were alternative ways to insure against statutory evasion, Congress was free to choose the method it found most efficacious and convenient.
protected birds. But the Migratory Bird Treaty Act contains no explicit exception for the possession or transportation of
The structure and context of this enactment -- to the extent that they enlighten -- also suggest congressional understanding that regulatory authorities could ban the sale of lawfully
taken birds, except where otherwise expressly instructed by the statute. If Congress had assumed that lawfully taken birds could automatically be sold under the Act, it would have been unnecessary to specify in § 711 that it is permissible under certain circumstances to sell game birds lawfully bred on farms and preserves. [Footnote 14] Furthermore, Congress could not have been unaware that a traditional legislative tool for enforcing conservation policy was a flat proscription on the sale of wildlife, without regard to the legality of the taking. At the time, a number of States, for example, simply prohibited or restricted possession or sale of wildlife during seasons closed to hunting. See New York ex rel. Silz v. Hesterberg, supra at 211 U. S. 40. Also before Congress was the Canadian law implementing the Migratory Bird Treaty, [Footnote 15] and that law itself contained a provision barring the purchase, sale, or possession of protected bird parts "during the time when the capturing, killing, or taking of such bird, nest, or egg is prohibited by law," 55 Cong.Rec. 5412 (1917). [Footnote 16] (Emphasis added.) The Canadian sale ban -- of which Congress was aware -- thus applied not to illegally taken birds, but rather to all protected birds during the season in which hunting was prohibited. Against this background, the absence of a statutory exemption for preexisting avian artifacts implies that the Migratory Bird Treaty Act was intended to embrace the traditional conservation technique of banning transactions in protected birds, whenever taken.
Related statutes may sometimes shed light upon a previous enactment. Cf. United States v. Aluminum Co. of America, 148 F.2d 416, 429 (CA2 1945) (L. Hand, J.). Other conservation legislation enacted by Congress has employed the enforcement technique of forbidding the sale of protected wildlife without respect to the lawfulness of the taking. The Eagle Protection Act is a notable example. The more recent Endangered Species Act of 1973, as originally framed, prohibited the sale of products or parts of endangered species, without an exception for those products legally held for commercial purposes at the time of the Act's passage. [Footnote 17] See 16 U.S.C. § 1538 ; United States v. Kepler, 531 F.2d 798 (CA6 1976); Delbay Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. Department of Commerce, 409 F.Supp. 637, 641-642, 644 (DC 1976); see also H.R.Rep. No. 94-823, pp. 3-4 (1976) (discussing an amendment to the Endangered Species Act). And when Congress has meant to exempt lawfully taken items from the retroactive application of statutory prohibitions, it has taken care to do so explicitly, see 16 U.S.C. § 1372 (Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972); 16 U.S.C. § 153(b) (Endangered Species Act of 1973), or it has specifically amended the statute for that purpose, see 90 Stat. 911, amending 16 U.S.C. § 1539 (Endangered Species Act); 92 Stat. 3760, amending 16 U.S.C. §§ 1538 and 1539 (Endangered Species Act). In contrast, Congress has never established a preexisting artifacts exception to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, even though it has amended the statute on several occasions. [Footnote 18]
We are therefore persuaded that the Migratory Bird Treaty Act empowers the Secretary of the Interior to bar commercial transactions in covered bird parts in spite of the fact that the parts were lawfully taken before the onset of federal protection. We see no indication to the contrary. [Footnote 19] It follows
We also disagree with the District Court's holding that, as construed to authorize the prohibition of commercial transaction in preexisting avian artifacts, the Eagle Protection and Migratory Bird Treaty Acts violate appellees' Fifth Amendment property rights because the prohibition wholly deprives them of the opportunity to earn a profit from those relics. [Footnote 21]
The regulations challenged here do not compel the surrender of the artifacts, and there is no physical invasion or restraint upon them. Rather, a significant restriction has been imposed on one means of disposing of the artifacts. But the denial of one traditional property right does not always amount to a taking. At least where an owner possesses
It is, to be sure, undeniable that the regulations here prevent the most profitable use of appellees' property. Again, however, that is not dispositive. When we review regulation, a reduction in the value of property is not necessarily equated with a taking. Compare Goldblatt v. Hempstead, supra at 369 U. S. 594, and Hadacheck v. Sebastian, 239 U. S. 394 (1915), with Pennsylvania Coal Co. v. Mahon, supra. [Footnote 22] In the instant case, it is not clear that appellees will be unable to derive economic benefit from the artifacts; for example, they might exhibit the artifacts for an admissions charge. At any rate, loss of future profits -- unaccompanied by any physical property restriction -- provides a slender reed upon which to rest a takings claim. Prediction of profitability is essentially a matter of reasoned speculation that courts are not especially competent to perform. Further, perhaps because of its very uncertainty, the interest in anticipated gains has traditionally been viewed as less compelling than other property-related interests. Cf., e.g., Fuller & Perdue, The Reliance Interest in Contract Damages (pt. 1), 46 Yale L.J. 52 (1936).
It is true that appellees must bear the costs of these regulations. But, within limits, that is a burden borne to secure "the advantage of living and doing business in a civilized community." Pennsylvania Coal Co. v. Mahon, supra at 260 U. S. 422 (Brandeis, J., dissenting). We hold that the simple prohibition of the sale of lawfully acquired property in this
Our interpretation of the statute does not depart from any course of construction adopted by other courts. Although appellees argue that several courts have determined that lawfully taken birds may be sold under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, we do not read the cases as supporting appellees' position. Two of the cited cases, United States v. Hamel, 534 F.2d 1354 (CA9 1976) (per curiam), and United States v. Blanket, 391 F.Supp. 15 (WD Okla.1975), neither decide nor imply a decision as to the statutory question posed here. Language favorable to appellees in United States v. Aitson, No. 74-1588 (CA10, July 21, 1975), is merely dictum in an unpublished opinion. Contrast also United States v. Richards, 583 F.2d 491 (CA10 1978). United States v. Marks, 4 F.2d 420 (SD Tex.1925), did hold it impermissible to punish the sale of birds taken before the Migratory Bird Treaty Act was passed. But that ruling rested upon the court's view that Congress' authority to regulate the birds must rest wholly upon the treaty, rather than the commerce power. Whatever the logic of that ruling, the underlying assumption that the national commerce power does not reach migratory wildlife is clearly flawed. See, e.g., Hughes v. Oklahoma, 441 U. S. 322 (1979). Thus, only two early District Court cases, both authored by the same judge, sustain the statutory proposition advanced by appellees. United States v. Fuld Store Co., 262 F. 836 (Mont.1920); In re Informations Under Migratory Bird Treaty Act, 281 F. 546 (Mont.1922). The cases involved no more than a cursory inquiry into the statute, and we find them unconvincing.
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