Pung v. Isabella County · ¶28

Neither history nor precedent supports Pung’s contrary argument. In support of his position, Pung first cites a recent concurrence by a Justice of the Supreme Court of Michigan that accepts fair market value as the baseline for just compensation under the State Constitution. See Rafaeli, LLC v. Oakland County, 505 Mich. 429, 485–522, 952 N. W. 2d 434, 466–487 (2020) (Viviano, J., concurring). It goes without saying that a one-Justice concurrence interpreting a state constitutional provision almost 230 years after the Takings Clause’s ratification does not shed much light on that Clause’s meaning. The more telling feature of that decision is the majority’s express rejection of the proposition “that just compensation requires that plaintiffs be awarded the fair market value of their properties.” Id., at 483, 952 N. W 2d, at 465. So Rafaeli, if anything, undermines Pung’s argument.

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