Trump v. Cook · ¶125
Cook has no property right to hold power on the Board. In our system of government, a “public office is not property.” Taylor, 178 U. S., at 576. Cook’s claim that she has a property right to exercise governmental power is “alien to the concept of a republican form of government.” Barnes v. Kline, 759 F. 2d 21, 50 (CADC 1985) (Bork, J., dissenting). And, this Court’s precedents have “consistently recognized” that “government employment [is] not property or [an] otherwise cognizable interes[t] under the Due Process Claus[e].” Gutierrez v. Saenz, 606 U. S. 305, 332 (2025) (THOMAS, J., dissenting). Even “an officer appointed for a definite time or during good behavior” lacks a “vested interest or contract right in his office.” Crenshaw v. United States, 134 U. S. 99, 104 (1890). “An unlawful denial” of “political office is not a denial of a right of property or of liberty secured by the…Read in context ›
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