Too Quick on the Trigger: How the Fourth Circuit's Review of Regulatory Takings in Maryland Shall Issue, Inc. v. Hogan Failed to Consider the Complexities of Takings Jurisprudence

Marie A. Bauer

In Maryland Shall Issue, Inc. v. Hogan, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit considered whether a statute that deprived property owners of the right to possess, manufacture, sell, purchase, transfer, transport in-state, or receive a rapid fire gun trigger activator device was a “taking” requiring just compensation under the United States Constitution’s Fifth Amendment Takings Clause. The court held that the statute was not a taking because it did not involve direct physical appropriation of personal property by the government. The court myopically decided the case, relying on a wholly literal interpretation of the statute instead of analyzing the statute’s impact on property rights under the conceptual framework frequently used by the Supreme Court. By summarily dismissing the appellants’ arguments, the majority disregarded the Supreme Court’s complex regulatory takings precedent.