Q9 - Legal doctrine: The government cannot appropriate

by **Laura Damone** Wed Jan 16, 2019 12:55 pm

Question Type:
Principle Support

Stimulus Breakdown:
Application: If the government blocks construction on the lake, thereby tanking property value there, it must offer fair compensation to the property owners. Legal doctrine: The government can't appropriate private property without offering fair compensation to the property owner.

Answer Anticipation:
This is an increasingly common flavor of principle question: it provides a principle and an application of that principle, and asks you to find an answer choice that makes the application of that principle more appropriate. The pattern for these is very consistent. Make the application appropriate by proving that the case to which the principle is applied fulfills the sufficient condition of the principle. Here, the principle is "if gov appropriates, gov must compensate." So we should anticipate an answer that shows that the government's ban on lakeside construction is an appropriation of private property.

Correct answer:
C

Answer choice analysis:
(A) No. At issue here is not whether the government should or should not impose the regulation. It is whether those impacted by the regulation must be compensated.

(B) Balancing the rights of different parties and the preservation of wilderness aren't what we're talking about here. This argument is all about the money.

(C) Here it is: proof that the situation at the lake is an appropriation of private property.

(D) This is the opposite of what we're looking for!

(E) Nope. This argument isn't about the public interest. It's about just compensation for property owners.

Takeaway/Pattern:
Principle questions are increasingly varied on recent LSAT's, so don't be surprised if you see a principle question that you're not immediately familiar with. Remember the basic rules of principles: they support arguments by bridging gaps between the premises and conclusion, and they can only be applied to situations that fulfill their sufficient conditions.

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