Police can destroy home without compensation to apprehend a criminal suspect

The Tenth Circuit has held that the police may destroy a home if they deem it necessary to apprehend a suspect, and that doing so triggers no obligation to pay just compensation under the fourteenth amendment. Lech v. Jackson, 2019 WL 5581699 (10th Cir. 2019). Citing a precedent from the Court of Federal Claims, Bachmann v. United States, 134 Fed.Cl. 694 (2017), the court held that the police were acting within the "police power" rather than the "eminent domain" power and cannot be burdened with the condition that they compensate whomever is damaged by their actions along the way. See also Amerisource Corp. v. United States, 525 F.3d 1149 (Fed. Cir. 2008).

See also: Takings