Court Opinion

ID: 9426773
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:18:53.647024+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:03.018603
License: Public Domain

Mr. Chief Justice Burger,
concurring.
In my view, to repeal the 1962 covenant without running afoul of the constitutional prohibition against the impairment of contracts, the State must demonstrate that the impairment was essential to the achievement of an important state purpose. Furthermore, the State must show that it did not know and could not have known the impact of the contract on that state interest at the time that the contract was made. So reading the Court's opinion, I join it.
*33For emphasis, I note that the Court pointedly does not hold that, on the facts of this case, any particular “less drastic modification” would pass constitutional muster, ante, at 30, and n. 28.