(Slip Opinion) OCTOBER TERM, 2004 1
Syllabus
NOTE: Where it is feasible, a syllabus (headnote) will be released, as is
being done in connection with this case, at the time the opinion is issued.
The syllabus constitutes no part of the opinion of the Court but has been
prepared by the Reporter of Decisions for the convenience of the reader.
See United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co., 200 U. S. 321, 337.
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
Syllabus
SAN REMO HOTEL, L. P., ET AL. v. CITY AND COUNTY
OF SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, ET AL.
CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR
THE NINTH CIRCUIT
No. 04–340. Argued March 28, 2005—Decided June 20, 2005
Petitioners, hoteliers in respondent city, initiated this litigation over
the application of an ordinance requiring them to pay a $567,000 fee
for converting residential rooms to tourist rooms. They initially
sought mandamus in California state court, but that action was
stayed when they filed suit in Federal District Court asserting, inter
alia, facial and as-applied challenges to the ordinance under the Fifth
Amendment’s Takings Clause. Although the District Court granted
the city summary judgment, the Ninth Circuit abstained from ruling
on the facial challenge under Railroad Comm’n of Tex. v. Pullman
Co., 312 U. S. 496, because the pending state mandamus action could
moot the federal question. The court did, however, affirm the District
Court’s ruling that the as-applied claim was unripe. Back in state
court, petitioners attempted to reserve the right to return to federal
court for adjudication of their federal takings claims. Ultimately, the
California courts rejected petitioners’ various state-law takings
claims, and they returned to the Federal District Court, advancing a
series of federal takings claims that depended on issues identical to
those previously resolved in the state courts. In order to avoid being
barred from suit by the general rule of issue preclusion, petitioners
asked the District Court to exempt their federal takings claims from
the reach of the full faith and credit statute, 28 U. S. C. §1738. Rely-
ing on the Williamson County Regional Planning Comm’n v. Hamil-
ton Bank of Johnson City, 473 U. S. 172, 195, holding that takings
claims are not ripe until a State fails “to provide adequate compensa-
tion for the taking,” petitioners argued that, unless courts disregard
§1738 in takings cases, plaintiffs will be forced to litigate their claims
in state court without any realistic possibility of ever obtaining fed-
2 SAN REMO HOTEL, L. P. v. CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN
FRANCISCO
Syllabus
eral review. Holding, inter alia, that petitioners’ facial attack was
barred by issue preclusion, the District Court reasoned that §1738
requires federal courts to give preclusive effect to any state-court
judgment that would have such effect under the State’s laws. The
court added that because California courts had interpreted the rele-
vant substantive state takings law coextensively with federal law, pe-
titioners’ federal claims constituted the same claims the state courts
had already resolved. Affirming, the Ninth Circuit rejected petition-
ers’ contention that general preclusion principles should be cast aside
whenever plaintiffs must litigate in state court under Pullman and/or
Williamson County.
Held: This Court will not create an exception to the full faith and credit
statute in order to provide a federal forum for litigants seeking to ad-
vance federal takings claims. Pp. 11–23.
(a) The Court rejects petitioners’ contention that whenever plain-
tiffs reserve their federal takings claims in state court under England
v. Louisiana Bd. of Medical Examiners, 375 U. S. 411, federal courts
should review the reserved federal claims de novo, regardless of what
issues the state court may have decided or how it may have decided
them. The England Court’s discussion of the “typical case” in which
reservations of federal issues are appropriate makes clear that the
decision was aimed at cases fundamentally distinct from petitioners’.
England cases generally involve federal constitutional challenges to a
state statute that can be avoided if a state court construes the statute
in a particular manner. Id., at 420. In such cases, the purpose of ab-
stention is not to afford state courts an opportunity to adjudicate an
issue that is functionally identical to the federal question, but to
avoid resolving the federal question by encouraging a state-law de-
termination that may moot the federal controversy. See id., at 416–
417, and n. 7. Additionally, the Court made clear that the effective
reservation of a federal claim was dependent on the condition that
plaintiffs take no action to broaden the scope of the state court’s re-
view beyond deciding the antecedent state-law issue. Id., at 419. Be-
cause the Ninth Circuit invoked Pullman abstention after determin-
ing that a ripe federal question existed as to the petitioners’ facial
takings challenge, they were entitled to insulate from preclusive ef-
fect that one federal issue while they returned to state court to re-
solve their mandamus petition. Petitioners, however, chose to ad-
vance broader issues than the limited ones in the mandamus
petition, putting forth facial and as-applied takings challenges to the
city ordinance in their state action. By doing so, they effectively
asked the state court to resolve the same federal issue they had pre-
viously asked it to reserve. England does not support the exercise of
any such right. Petitioners’ as-applied takings claims fare no better.
Cite as: 545 U. S. ____ (2005) 3
Syllabus
The Ninth Circuit found those claims unripe under Williamson
County, and therefore affirmed their dismissal. They were never
properly before the District Court, and there was no reason to expect
that they could be relitigated in full if advanced in the state proceed-
ings. Pp. 11–17.
(b) Federal courts are not free to disregard §1738 simply to guaran-
tee that all takings plaintiffs can have their day in federal court. Pe-
titioners misplace their reliance on the Second Circuit’s Santini deci-
sion, which held that parties who are forced to litigate their state-law
takings claims in state court pursuant to Williamson County cannot
be precluded from having those very claims resolved by a federal
court. The Santini court’s reasoning is unpersuasive for several rea-
sons. First, both petitioners and Santini ultimately depend on an as-
sumption that plaintiffs have a right to vindicate their federal claims
in a federal forum. This Court has repeatedly held to the contrary.
See, e.g., Allen v. McCurry, 449 U. S. 90, 103–104. Second, petition-
ers’ argument assumes that courts may simply create exceptions to
§1738 wherever they deem them appropriate. However, this Court
has held that no such exception will be recognized unless a later
statute contains an express or implied partial repeal. E.g., Kremer v.
Chemical Constr. Corp., 456 U. S. 461, 468. Congress has not ex-
pressed any intent to exempt federal takings claims from §1738.
Third, petitioners have overstated Williamson County’s reach
throughout this litigation. Because they were never required to ripen
in state court their claim that the city ordinance was facially invalid
for failure to substantially advance a legitimate state interest, see
Yee v. Escondido, 503 U. S. 519, 534, they could have raised the heart
of their facial takings challenges directly in federal court. With re-
spect to those federal claims that did require ripening, petitioners are
incorrect that Williamson County precludes state courts from hearing
simultaneously a plaintiff’s request for compensation under state law
together with a claim that, in the alternative, the denial of compensa-
tion would violate the Fifth Amendment of the Federal Constitution.
Pp. 17–23.
364 F. 3d 1088, affirmed.
STEVENS, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which SCALIA,
SOUTER, GINSBURG, and BREYER, JJ., joined. REHNQUIST, C. J., filed an
opinion concurring in the judgment, in which O’CONNOR, KENNEDY, and
THOMAS, JJ., joined.
Cite as: 545 U. S. ____ (2005) 1
Opinion of the Court
NOTICE: This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the
preliminary print of the United States Reports. Readers are requested to
notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Wash-
ington, D. C. 20543, of any typographical or other formal errors, in order
that corrections may be made before the preliminary print goes to press.
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
_________________
No. 04–340
_________________
SAN REMO HOTEL, L. P., ET AL., PETITIONERS v.
CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO,
CALIFORNIA, ET AL.
ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF
APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
[June 20, 2005]
JUSTICE STEVENS delivered the opinion of the Court.
This case presents the question whether federal courts
may craft an exception to the full faith and credit statute,
28 U. S. C. §1738, for claims brought under the Takings
Clause of the Fifth Amendment.
Petitioners, who own and operate a hotel in San Fran-
cisco, California (hereinafter City), initiated this litigation
in response to the application of a city ordinance that
required them to pay a $567,000 “conversion fee” in 1996.
After the California courts rejected petitioners’ various
state-law takings claims, they advanced in the Federal
District Court a series of federal takings claims that de-
pended on issues identical to those that had previously
been resolved in the state-court action. In order to avoid
the bar of issue preclusion, petitioners asked the District
Court to exempt from §1738’s reach claims brought under
the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment.
Petitioners’ argument is predicated on Williamson
County Regional Planning Comm’n v. Hamilton Bank of
Johnson City, 473 U. S. 172 (1985), which held that tak-
2 SAN REMO HOTEL, L. P. v. CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN
FRANCISCO
Opinion of the Court
ings claims are not ripe until a State fails “to provide
adequate compensation for the taking.” Id., at 195.
Unless courts disregard §1738 in takings cases, petitioners
argue, plaintiffs will be forced to litigate their claims in
state court without any realistic possibility of ever obtain-
ing review in a federal forum. The Ninth Circuit’s rejection
of this argument conflicted with the Second Circuit’s deci-
sion in Santini v. Connecticut Hazardous Waste Manage-
ment Service, 342 F. 3d 118 (2003). We granted certiorari to
resolve the conflict, 543 U. S. ___ (2004),1 and now affirm
the judgment of the Ninth Circuit.
I
The San Remo Hotel is a three-story, 62-unit hotel in
the Fisherman’s Wharf neighborhood in San Francisco. In
December 1906, shortly after the great earthquake and
fire destroyed most of the city, the hotel—then called the
“New California Hotel”—opened its doors to house dislo-
cated individuals, immigrants, artists, and laborers. The
City officially licensed the facility to operate as a hotel and
restaurant in 1916, and in 1922 the hotel was given its
current name. When the hotel fell into financial difficul-
ties and a “dilapidated condition” in the early 1970’s,
Robert and Thomas Field purchased the facility, restored
it, and began to operate it as a bed and breakfast inn. See
San Remo Hotel, L. P. v. City and County of San Fran-
cisco, 100 Cal. Rptr. 2d 1, 5 (Cal. App. 2000) (officially
——————
1 Although petitioners asked this Court to review two separate ques-
tions, our grant of certiorari was limited exclusively to the question
whether “a Fifth Amendment Takings claim [is] barred by issue preclu-
sion based on a judgment denying compensation solely under state law,
which was rendered in a state court proceeding that was required to
ripen the federal Takings claim?” Pet. for Cert. i. Thus, we have no
occasion to reach petitioners’ claim that, under California law, the
substantive state takings law decision of the California Supreme Court
was not entitled to preclusive effect in federal court. See Brief for
Petitioners 19–21.
Cite as: 545 U. S. ____ (2005) 3
Opinion of the Court
depublished).
In 1979, San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors responded
to “a severe shortage” of affordable rental housing for
elderly, disabled, and low-income persons by instituting a
moratorium on the conversion of residential hotel units
into tourist units. San Francisco Residential Hotel Unit
Conversion and Demolition Ordinance (hereinafter Hotel
Conversion Ordinance or HCO) §§41.3(a)–(g), Pet. for
Cert. 195a–197a. Two years later, the City enacted the
first version of the Hotel Conversion Ordinance to regulate
all future conversions. San Francisco Ordinance No. 330–
81, codified in §41.1 et seq. Under the 1981 version of the
HCO, a hotel owner could convert residential units into
tourist units only by obtaining a conversion permit. And
those permits could be obtained only by constructing new
residential units, rehabilitating old ones, or paying an “in
lieu” fee into the City’s Residential Hotel Preservation
Fund Account. See §§41.12–41.13, Pet. for Cert. 224a–
231a. The City substantially strengthened the HCO in
1990 by eliminating several exceptions that had existed in
the 1981 version and increasing the size of the “in lieu” fee
hotel owners must pay when converting residential units.
See 145 F. 3d 1095, 1099 (CA9 1998).
The genesis of this protracted dispute lies in the 1981
HCO’s requirement that each hotel “file an initial unit
usage report containing” the “number of residential and
tourist units in the hotel[s] as of September 23, 1979.”
§41.6(b)(1), Pet. for Cert. 206a. Jean Iribarren was operat-
ing the San Remo Hotel, pursuant to a lease from peti-
tioners, when this requirement came into effect. Iribarren
filed the initial usage report for the hotel, which errone-
ously reported that all of the rooms in the hotel were
“residential” units.2 The consequence of that initial classi-
——————
2 It seems that despite this initial classification, the San Remo Hotel
has operated as a mixed hotel for tourists and long-term residents since
4 SAN REMO HOTEL, L. P. v. CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN
FRANCISCO
Opinion of the Court
fication was that the City zoned the San Remo Hotel as
“residential hotel”—in other words, a hotel that consisted
entirely of residential units. And that zoning determina-
tion ultimately meant that, despite the fact that the San
Remo Hotel had operated in practice as a tourist hotel for
many years, 145 F. 3d, at 1100, petitioners were required
to apply for a conditional use permit to do business offi-
cially as a “tourist hotel,” 27 Cal. 4th 643, 654, 41 P. 3d
87, 94 (2002).
After the HCO was revised in 1990, petitioners applied
to convert all of the rooms in the San Remo Hotel into
tourist use rooms under the relevant HCO provisions and
requested a conditional use permit under the applicable
zoning laws. In 1993, the City Planning Commission
granted petitioners’ requested conversion and conditional
use permit, but only after imposing several conditions, one
of which included the requirement that petitioners pay a
$567,000 “in lieu” fee.3 Petitioners appealed, arguing that
the HCO requirement was unconstitutional and otherwise
improperly applied to their hotel. See id., at 656, 41 P. 3d,
at 95. The City Board of Supervisors rejected petitioners’
appeal on April 19, 1993.
In March 1993, Petitioners filed for a writ of adminis-
trative mandamus in California Superior Court. That
action lay dormant for several years, and the parties
——————
long before the HCO was enacted. According to the California Supreme
Court, in “a 1992 declaration by [petitioners], Iribarren filed the ‘incor-
rect’ initial unit usage report without their knowledge. They first
discovered the report in 1983 when they resumed operation of the hotel.
They protested the residential use classification in 1987, but were told
it could not be changed because the appeal period had passed.” 27 Cal.
4th 643, 654, 41 P. 3d 87, 94 (2002).
3 The application specifically required petitioners (1) to pay for 40
percent of the cost of replacement housing for the 62 lost residential
units; (2) to offer lifetime leases to any then-current residential users;
and (3) to “obtain variances from floor-area ratio and parking require-
ments.” Id., at 656, 41 P. 3d, at 95.
Cite as: 545 U. S. ____ (2005) 5
Opinion of the Court
ultimately agreed to stay that action after petitioners filed
for relief in Federal District Court.
Petitioners filed in federal court for the first time on
May 4, 1993. Petitioners’ first amended complaint alleged
four counts of due process (substantive and procedural)
and takings (facial and as-applied)4 violations under the
Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States
Constitution, one count seeking damages under Rev. Stat.
§1979, 42 U. S. C. §1983, for those violations, and one
pendent state-law claim. The District Court granted
respondents summary judgment. As relevant to this
action, the court found that petitioners’ facial takings
claim was untimely under the applicable statute of limita-
tions, and that the as-applied takings claim was unripe
under Williamson County, 473 U. S. 172.
On appeal to the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit,
petitioners took the unusual position that the court should
not decide their federal claims, but instead should abstain
under Railroad Comm’n of Tex. v. Pullman Co., 312 U. S.
496 (1941), because a return to state court could conceiva-
bly moot the remaining federal questions. See App. 67–68;
see also 145 F. 3d, at 1101. The Court of Appeals obliged
petitioners’ request with respect to the facial challenge, a
request that respondents apparently viewed as an “outra-
geous act of chutzpah.” Id., at 1105. That claim, the court
reasoned, was “ripe the instant the 1990 HCO was en-
acted,” id., at 1102, and appropriate for Pullman absten-
——————
4 Specifically, count 3 alleged that the HCO was facially unconstitu-
tional under the Takings Clause because it “fails to substantially
advance legitimate government interests, deprives plaintiffs of the
opportunity to earn a fair return on its investment, denies plaintiffs
economically viable use of their property, and forces plaintiffs to bear
the public burden of housing the poor, all without just compensation.”
First Amended and Supplemental Complaint, No. C–93–1644–DLJ (D.
Cal., Jan. 24, 1994), p. 20, ¶49. Count 4, which advanced petitioners’
as-applied Takings Clause violation, was predicated on the same
rationale. Id., at 21.
6 SAN REMO HOTEL, L. P. v. CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN
FRANCISCO
Opinion of the Court
tion principally because petitioners’ “entire case” hinged
on the propriety of the planning commission’s zoning
designation—the precise subject of the pending state
mandamus action, 145 F. 3d, at 1105.5 The court, how-
ever, affirmed the District Court’s determination that
petitioners’ as-applied takings claim—the claim that the
application of the HCO to the San Remo Hotel violated the
Takings Clause—was unripe. Because petitioners had
failed to pursue an inverse condemnation action in state
court, they had not yet been denied just compensation as
contemplated by Williamson County. 145 F. 3d, at 1105.
At the conclusion of the Ninth Circuit’s opinion, the
court appended a footnote stating that petitioners would
be free to raise their federal takings claims in the Califor-
nia courts. If, however, they wanted to “retain [their]
right to return to federal court for adjudication of [their]
federal claim, [they] must make an appropriate reserva-
tion in state court.” Id., at 1106, n. 7 (citations omitted).6
That is precisely what petitioners attempted to do when
they reactivated the dormant California case. Yet peti-
tioners advanced more than just the claims on which the
federal court had abstained, and phrased their state
claims in language that sounded in the rules and stan-
dards established and refined by this Court’s takings
jurisprudence. Petitioners claimed, for instance, that
“imposition of the fee ‘fails to substantially advance a
legitimate government interest’ and that ‘[t]he amount of
the fee imposed is not roughly proportional to the impact’
of the proposed tourist use of the San Remo Hotel.” 27
——————
5 The Court of Appeals did not answer the question whether this
claim was barred by the statute of limitations, as the District Court had
held.
6 The reservation discussed in the Ninth Circuit’s opinion was the
common reservation of federal claims made in state litigation under
England v. Louisiana Bd. of Medical Examiners, 375 U. S. 411, 420–
421 (1964).
Cite as: 545 U. S. ____ (2005) 7
Opinion of the Court
Cal. 4th, at 656, 41 P. 3d, at 95 (quoting petitioners’ sec-
ond amended state complaint).7 The state trial court
dismissed petitioners’ amended complaint, but the inter-
mediate appellate court reversed. The court held that
petitioners’ claim that the payment of the “in lieu” fee
effected a taking should have been evaluated under
heightened scrutiny. Under more exacting scrutiny, the
fee failed this Court’s “essential nexus” and “rough propor-
tionality” tests because, inter alia, it was based on the
original flawed designation that the San Remo Hotel was
an entirely “residential use” facility. See id., at 657–658,
41 P. 3d, at 96–97 (summarizing appellate court opinion).
The California Supreme Court reversed over the partial
dissent of three justices.8 The court initially noted that
petitioners had reserved their federal causes of action and
had sought no relief for any violation of the Federal Con-
stitution. Id., at 649, n. 1, 41 P. 3d, at 91, n. 1.9 In the
portion of its opinion discussing the Takings Clause of the
California Constitution, however, the court noted that “we
appear to have construed the clauses congruently.” Id., at
664, 41 P. 3d, at 100–101 (citing cases). Accordingly,
despite the fact that petitioners sought relief only under
——————
7 With respect to claims that a regulation fails to advance a legitimate
state interest, see generally Lingle v. Chevron U. S. A. Inc., 544 U. S.
___, (2005) (slip op., at 6–15). With respect to “rough proportionality”
claims, see generally Nollan v. California Coastal Comm’n, 483 U. S.
825 (1987); Dolan v. City of Tigard, 512 U. S. 374 (1994).
8 Justice Baxter and Justice Chin opined that because some hotel
rooms had been previously rented to tourists, the “in lieu” payment was
excessive. 27 Cal. 4th, at 691, 41 P. 3d, at 119–120. Justice Brown
opined that a 1985 statute had effectively superseded the HCO and
disagreed with the majority’s analysis of the constitutional issues. Id.,
at 699, 700–704, 41 P. 3d, at 125–128.
9 “Plaintiffs sought no relief in state court for violation of the Fifth
Amendment to the United States Constitution. They explicitly re-
served their federal causes of action. As their petition for writ of
mandate, as well, rests solely on state law, no federal question has been
presented or decided in this case.” Ibid.
8 SAN REMO HOTEL, L. P. v. CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN
FRANCISCO
Opinion of the Court
California law, the state court decided to “analyze their
takings claim under the relevant decisions of both this
court and the United States Supreme Court.” Ibid., 41
P. 3d, at 101.10
The principal constitutional issue debated by the parties
was whether a heightened level of scrutiny applied to the
claim that the housing replacement fee “ ‘does not substan-
tially advance legitimate state interests.’ ” Ibid. (quoting
Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council, 505 U. S. 1003,
1016 (1992)). In resolving that debate the court focused on
our opinions in Nollan v. California Coastal Comm’n, 483
U. S. 825 (1987), and Dolan v. City of Tigard, 512 U. S.
374 (1994). Rejecting petitioners’ argument that height-
ened scrutiny should apply, the court emphasized the
distinction between discretionary exactions imposed by
executive officials on an ad hoc basis and “ ‘generally ap-
plicable zoning regulations’ ” involving “ ‘legislative deter-
minations.’ ” 27 Cal. 4th, at 666–668, 41 P. 3d, at 102–104
(quoting, e.g., Dolan, 512 U. S., at 385, 391, n. 8). The
court situated the HCO within the latter category, reason-
ing that the ordinance relied upon fixed fees computed
under a formula that is generally applicable to broad
classes of property owners.11 The court concluded that the
——————
10 Seealso id., at 665, 41 P. 3d, at 101 (“[I]t is the last mentioned
prong of the high court’s takings analysis that is at issue here” (empha-
sis added)).
11 See id., at 669, 41 P. 3d, at 104 (noting that the “HCO is generally
applicable legislation in that it applies, without discretion or discrimi-
nation, to every residential hotel in the city” and that “no meaningful
government discretion enters into either the imposition or the calcula-
tion of the in lieu fee”). The court noted that the general class of
property owners included more than 500 properties containing over
18,000 rooms, id., at 669, n. 12, 41 P. 3d, at 104, n. 12, and concluded
that the HCO “applies to all property in the class logically subject to its
strictures, that is, to all residential hotel units; no more can rationally
be demanded of local land use legislation in order to qualify for deferen-
tial review,” id., at 669, 41 P. 3d, at 104.
Cite as: 545 U. S. ____ (2005) 9
Opinion of the Court
less demanding “reasonable relationship” test should
apply to the HCO’s monetary assessments, 27 Cal. 4th, at
671, 41 P. 3d, at 105.
Applying the “reasonable relationship” test, the court
upheld the HCO on its face and as-applied to petitioners.
As to the facial challenge, the court concluded that the
HCO’s mandated conversion fees “bear a reasonable rela-
tionship to the loss of housing . . . in the generality or great
majority of cases. . . .” Id., at 673, 41 P. 3d, at 107. With
respect to petitioners’ as-applied challenge, the court
concluded that the conversion fee was reasonably based on
the number of units designated for conversion, which itself
was based on petitioners’ own estimate that had been
provided to the City in 1981 and had remained unchal-
lenged for years. Id., at 678, and n. 17, 41 P. 3d, at 110–
111, and n. 17. The court therefore reversed the appellate
court and reinstated the trial court’s order dismissing
petitioners’ complaint.
Petitioners did not seek a writ of certiorari from the
California Supreme Court’s decision in this Court. In-
stead, they returned to Federal District Court by filing an
amended complaint based on the complaint that they had
filed prior to invoking Pullman abstention.12 The District
——————
12 The third amended complaint, which was filed on November 14,
2002, alleged two separate counts. See App. 88–93. Count 1 alleged
that the HCO was facially unconstitutional and unconstitutional as-
applied to petitioners because (a) it failed “to substantially advance
legitimate government interests”; (b) it forced petitioners “to bear the
public burden of housing the poor”; and (c) it imposed unreasonable
conditions on petitioners’ request for a conditional use permit (the in
lieu fee and the required lifetime leases to residential tenants). Id., at
88–89. Count 2 sought relief under 42 U. S. C. §1983 based on (a)
extortion through the imposition of the $567,000 fee; (b) an actual
taking of property under Penn Central Transp. Co. v. New York City,
438 U. S. 104 (1978); (c) the failure of the HCO as applied to petitioners
to advance legitimate state interests; (d) the City’s requirement that
petitioners bear the full cost of providing a general public benefit
10 SAN REMO HOTEL, L. P. v. CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN
FRANCISCO
Opinion of the Court
Court held that petitioners’ facial attack on the HCO was
not only barred by the statute of limitations, but also by
the general rule of issue preclusion. See Pet. for Cert.
85a–86a.13 The District Court reasoned that 28 U. S. C.
§1738 requires federal courts to give preclusive effect to
any state-court judgment that would have preclusive effect
under the laws of the State in which the judgment was
rendered. Because California courts had interpreted the
relevant substantive state takings law coextensively with
federal law, petitioners’ federal claims constituted the
same claims that had already been resolved in state court.
The Court of Appeals affirmed. The court rejected
petitioners’ contention that general preclusion principles
should be cast aside whenever plaintiffs “must litigate in
state court pursuant to Pullman and/or Williamson
County.” 364 F. 3d 1088, 1096 (CA9 2004). Relying on
unambiguous Circuit precedent and the absence of any
clearly contradictory decisions from this Court, the Court
of Appeals found itself bound to apply general issue pre-
clusion doctrine. Given that general issue preclusion
principles governed, the only remaining question was
whether the District Court properly applied that doctrine;
the court concluded that it did. The court expressly re-
jected petitioners’ contention “that California takings law
is not coextensive with federal takings law,” id., at 1096,
and held that the state court’s application of the “reason-
able relationship” test was an “ ‘equivalent determination’
of such claims under the federal takings clause,” id., at
1098.14 We granted certiorari and now affirm.
——————
(public housing) without just compensation.
13 The District Court found that most of petitioners’ as-applied claims
amounted to nothing more than improperly labeled facial challenges.
See Pet. for Cert. 82a–85a. The remainder of petitioners’ as-applied
claims, the court held, was barred by the statute of limitations. Id., at
84a–85a.
14 California courts apply issue preclusion to a final judgment in ear-
Cite as: 545 U. S. ____ (2005)
11
Opinion of the Court
II
Article IV, §1, of the United States Constitution de-
mands that “Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each
State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings
of every other State. And the Congress may by general
Laws prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, Records
and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof.”
In 1790, Congress responded to the Constitution’s invita-
tion by enacting the first version of the full faith and
credit statute. See Act of May 26, 1790, ch. 11, 1 Stat.
122.15 The modern version of the statute, 28 U. S. C.
§1738, provides that “judicial proceedings . . . shall have
the same full faith and credit in every court within the
United States and its Territories and Possessions as they
have by law or usage in the courts of such State . . . .”
This statute has long been understood to encompass the
doctrines of res judicata, or “claim preclusion,” and collat-
eral estoppel, or “issue preclusion.” See Allen v. McCurry,
449 U. S. 90, 94–96 (1980).16
——————
lier litigation between the same parties if “(1) the issue decided in the
prior case is identical with the one now presented; (2) there was a final
judgment on the merits in the prior case, and (3) the party to be es-
topped was a party to the prior adjudication.” 364 F. 3d 1088, 1096
(CA9 2004). The court reasoned that the California Supreme Court’s
decision satisfied those criteria because petitioners’ takings challenges
“raised in state court are identical to the federal claims . . . and are
based on the same factual allegations.” Ibid. Our limited review in
this case does not include the question whether the Court of Appeals’
reading of California preclusion law was in error.
15 “This statute has existed in essentially unchanged form since its
enactment just after the ratification of the Constitution . . . .” Allen v.
McCurry, 449 U. S. 90, 96, n. 8 (1980).
16 “Under res judicata, a final judgment on the merits of an action
precludes the parties or their privies from relitigating issues that were
or could have been raised in that action. Under collateral estoppel,
once a court has decided an issue of fact or law necessary to its judg-
ment, that decision may preclude relitigation of the issue in a suit on a
different cause of action involving a party to the first case.” Id., at 94
12 SAN REMO HOTEL, L. P. v. CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN
FRANCISCO
Opinion of the Court
The general rule implemented by the full faith and
credit statute—that parties should not be permitted to
relitigate issues that have been resolved by courts of
competent jurisdiction—predates the Republic.17 It “has
found its way into every system of jurisprudence, not only
from its obvious fitness and propriety, but because without
it, an end could never be put to litigation.” Hopkins v. Lee,
6 Wheat. 109, 114 (1821). This Court has explained that
the rule
“is demanded by the very object for which civil courts
have been established, which is to secure the peace
and repose of society by the settlement of matters ca-
pable of judicial determination. Its enforcement is es-
sential to the maintenance of social order; for, the aid
of judicial tribunals would not be invoked for the vin-
dication of rights of person and property, if, as be-
tween parties and their privies, conclusiveness did not
attend the judgments of such tribunals in respect of
all matters properly put in issue and actually deter-
mined by them.” Southern Pacific R. Co. v. United
States, 168 U. S. 1, 49 (1897).
As this case is presented to us, under our limited grant
of certiorari, we have only one narrow question to decide:
whether we should create an exception to the full faith
and credit statute, and the ancient rule on which it is
based, in order to provide a federal forum for litigants who
seek to advance federal takings claims that are not ripe
——————
(citations omitted).
17 “The authority of the res judicata, with the limitations under which
it is admitted, is derived by us from the Roman law and the Canonists.”
Washington, Alexandria, & Georgetown Steam-Packet Co. v. Sickles, 24
How. 333, 341 (1861); see also id., at 343 (noting that the rule also has
its pedigree “[i]n the courts upon the continent of Europe, and in the
courts of chancery and admiralty in the United States and Great
Britain, where the function of adjudication is performed entire by a
tribunal composed of one or more judges . . .”).
Cite as: 545 U. S. ____ (2005) 13
Opinion of the Court
until the entry of a final state judgment denying just
compensation. See Williamson County, 473 U. S. 172.18
The essence of petitioners’ argument is as follows: be-
cause no claim that a state agency has violated the federal
Takings Clause can be heard in federal court until the
property owner has “been denied just compensation”
through an available state compensation procedure, id., at
195, “federal courts [should be] required to disregard the
decision of the state court” in order to ensure that federal
takings claims can be “considered on the merits in . . .
federal court.” See Brief for Petitioners 8, 14. Therefore,
the argument goes, whenever plaintiffs reserve their
claims under England v. Louisiana Bd. of Medical Exam-
iners, 375 U. S. 411 (1964), federal courts should review
the reserved federal claims de novo, regardless of what
issues the state court may have decided or how it may
have decided them.
We reject petitioners’ contention. Although petitioners
were certainly entitled to reserve some of their federal
claims, as we shall explain, England does not support
their erroneous expectation that their reservation would
fully negate the preclusive effect of the state-court judg-
ment with respect to any and all federal issues that might
arise in the future federal litigation. Federal courts,
moreover, are not free to disregard 28 U. S. C. §1738
simply to guarantee that all takings plaintiffs can have
their day in federal court. We turn first to England.
——————
18 We did not grant certiorari on many of the issues discussed by the
parties and amici. We therefore assume for purposes of our decision
that all other issues in this protracted controversy have been correctly
decided. We assume, for instance, that the Ninth Circuit properly
interpreted California preclusion law; that the California Supreme Court
was correct in its determination that California takings law is coextensive
with federal law; that, as a matter of California law, the HCO was
lawfully applied to petitioners’ hotel; and that under California law, the
“in lieu” fee was imposed evenhandedly and substantially advanced
legitimate state interests.
14 SAN REMO HOTEL, L. P. v. CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN
FRANCISCO
Opinion of the Court
III
England involved a group of plaintiffs who had gradu-
ated from chiropractic school, but sought to practice in
Louisiana without complying with the educational re-
quirements of the State’s Medical Practice Act. 375 U. S.,
at 412. They filed suit in federal court challenging the
constitutionality of the Act. The District Court invoked
Pullman abstention and stayed the proceedings to enable
the Louisiana courts to decide a preliminary and essential
question of state law—namely, whether the state statute
applied at all to chiropractors. 375 U. S., at 413.19 The
state court, however, reached beyond the state-law ques-
tion and held not only that the statute applied to the
plaintiffs but also that its application was consistent with
the Fourteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution.
The Federal District Court then dismissed the federal
action without addressing the merits of the federal claim.
On appeal, we held that when a federal court abstains
from deciding a federal constitutional issue to enable the
state courts to address an antecedent state-law issue, the
plaintiff may reserve his right to return to federal court
for the disposition of his federal claims. Id., at 419. In
that case, the antecedent state issue requiring abstention
was distinct from the reserved federal issue. See id., at
418–419. Our discussion of the “typical case” in which
reservations of federal issues are appropriate makes clear
that our holding was limited to cases that are fundamen-
tally distinct from petitioners’. “Typical” England cases
generally involve federal constitutional challenges to a
state statute that can be avoided if a state court construes
——————
19 We stressed in England that abstention was essential to prevent
the district court from deciding “ ‘questions of constitutionality on the
basis of preliminary guesses regarding local law.’ ” 375 U. S., at 416,
n. 7 (quoting Spector Motor Service, Inc. v. McLaughlin, 323 U. S. 101,
105 (1944)).
Cite as: 545 U. S. ____ (2005) 15
Opinion of the Court
the statute in a particular manner.20 In such cases, the
purpose of abstention is not to afford state courts an op-
portunity to adjudicate an issue that is functionally identi-
cal to the federal question. To the contrary, the purpose of
Pullman abstention in such cases is to avoid resolving the
federal question by encouraging a state-law determination
that may moot the federal controversy. See 375 U. S., at
416–417, and n. 7.21 Additionally, our opinion made it
perfectly clear that the effective reservation of a federal
claim was dependent on the condition that plaintiffs take
no action to broaden the scope of the state court’s review
beyond decision of the antecedent state-law issue.22
Our holding in England does not support petitioners’
attempt to relitigate issues resolved by the California
courts. With respect to petitioners’ facial takings claims,
the Court of Appeals invoked Pullman abstention after
determining that a ripe federal question existed—namely,
“the facial takings challenge to the 1990 HCO.” 145 F. 3d,
at 1105.23 It did so because “ ‘land use planning is a sensi-
——————
20 375 U. S., at 420 (describing the “typical case” as one in which “the
state courts are asked to construe a state statute against the backdrop
of a federal constitutional challenge”).
21 As we explained in Allen, 449 U. S., at 101–102, n. 17, “[t]he hold-
ing in England depended entirely on this Court’s view of the purpose of
abstention in such a case: Where a plaintiff properly invokes federal-
court jurisdiction in the first instance on a federal claim, the federal
court has a duty to accept that jurisdiction. Abstention may serve only
to postpone, rather than to abdicate, jurisdiction, since its purpose is to
determine whether resolution of the federal question is even necessary,
or to obviate the risk of a federal court’s erroneous construction of state
law.” (Emphasis added and citations omitted.)
22 375 U. S., at 419 (“[I]f a party freely and without reservation submits
his federal claims for decision by the state courts, litigates them there, and
has them decided there, then . . . he has elected to forgo his right to return
to the District Court”).
23 Petitioners’ facial challenges to the HCO were ripe, of course, under
Yee v. Escondido, 503 U. S. 519, 534 (1992), in which we held that facial
challenges based on the “substantially advances” test need not be ripened
16 SAN REMO HOTEL, L. P. v. CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN
FRANCISCO
Opinion of the Court
tive area of social policy’ ” and because petitioners’ pending
state mandamus action had the potential of mooting their
facial challenge to the HCO by overturning the City’s
original classification of the San Remo Hotel as a “residen-
tial” property. Ibid. Thus, petitioners were entitled to
insulate from preclusive effect one federal issue—their
facial constitutional challenge to the HCO—while they
returned to state court to resolve their petition for writ of
mandate.
Petitioners, however, chose to advance broader issues
than the limited issues contained within their state peti-
tion for writ of administrative mandamus on which the
Ninth Circuit relied when it invoked Pullman abstention.
In their state action, petitioners advanced not only their
request for a writ of administrative mandate, 27 Cal. 4th,
at 653, 41 P. 3d, at 93, but also their various claims that
the HCO was unconstitutional on its face and as applied
for (1) its failure to substantially advance a legitimate
interest, (2) its lack of a nexus between the required fees
and the ultimate objectives sought to be achieved via the
ordinance, and (3) its imposition of an undue economic
burden on individual property owners. Id., at 672–676, 41
P. 3d, at 106–109. By broadening their state action be-
yond the mandamus petition to include their “substan-
tially advances” claims, petitioners effectively asked the
state court to resolve the same federal issues they asked it
to reserve. England does not support the exercise of any
such right.
Petitioners’ as-applied takings claims fare no better. As
an initial matter, the Court of Appeals did not abstain
with respect to those claims. Instead, the court found that
they were unripe under Williamson County. The court
——————
in state court—the claims do “not depend on the extent to which petition-
ers are deprived of the economic use of their particular pieces of property
or the extent to which these particular petitioners are compensated.” Ibid.
Cite as: 545 U. S. ____ (2005) 17
Opinion of the Court
therefore affirmed the district court’s dismissal of those
claims. 145 F. 3d, at 1106. Unlike their “substantially
advances” claims, petitioners’ as-applied claims were
never properly before the District Court, and there was no
reason to expect that they could be relitigated in full if
advanced in the state proceedings. See Allen, 449 U. S., at
101, n. 17. In short, our opinion in England does not
support petitioners’ attempt to circumvent §1738.
IV
Petitioners’ ultimate submission, however, does not rely
on England alone. Rather, they argue that federal courts
simply should not apply ordinary preclusion rules to state-
court judgments when a case is forced into state court by
the ripeness rule of Williamson County. For support,
petitioners rely on the Court of Appeals for the Second
Circuit’s decision in Santini, 342 F. 3d, at 130.
In Santini, the Second Circuit held that parties “who
litigate state-law takings claims in state court involuntar-
ily” pursuant to Williamson County cannot be precluded
from having those very claims resolved “by a federal
court.” 342 F. 3d, at 130. The court did not rest its deci-
sion on any provision of the federal full faith and credit
statute or our cases construing that law. Instead, the
court reasoned that “[i]t would be both ironic and unfair if
the very procedure that the Supreme Court required
[plaintiffs] to follow before bringing a Fifth Amendment
takings claim . . . also precluded [them] from ever bringing
a Fifth Amendment takings claim.” Ibid. We find this
reasoning unpersuasive for several reasons.
First, both petitioners and Santini ultimately depend on
an assumption that plaintiffs have a right to vindicate
their federal claims in a federal forum. We have repeat-
edly held, to the contrary, that issues actually decided in
valid state-court judgments may well deprive plaintiffs of
the “right” to have their federal claims relitigated in fed-
18 SAN REMO HOTEL, L. P. v. CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN
FRANCISCO
Opinion of the Court
eral court. See, e.g., Migra v. Warren City School Dist. Bd.
of Ed., 465 U. S. 75, 84 (1984); Allen, 449 U. S., at 103–
104. This is so even when the plaintiff would have pre-
ferred not to litigate in state court, but was required to do
so by statute or prudential rules. See id., at 104. The
relevant question in such cases is not whether the plaintiff
has been afforded access to a federal forum; rather, the
question is whether the state court actually decided an
issue of fact or law that was necessary to its judgment.
In Allen, the plaintiff, Willie McCurry, invoked the
Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments in an unsuccessful
attempt to suppress evidence in a state criminal trial.
After he was convicted, he sought to remedy his alleged
constitutional violation by bringing a suit for damages
under 42 U. S. C. §1983 against the officers who had
entered his home. Relying on “ ‘the special role of federal
courts in protecting civil rights’ ” and the fact that §1983
provided the “only route to a federal forum,” the court of
appeals held that McCurry was entitled to a federal trial
unencumbered by collateral estoppel. 449 U. S., at 93. We
rejected that argument emphatically.
“The actual basis of the Court of Appeals’ holding ap-
pears to be a generally framed principle that every
person asserting a federal right is entitled to one un-
encumbered opportunity to litigate that right in a fed-
eral district court, regardless of the legal posture in
which the federal claim arises. But the authority for
this principle is difficult to discern. It cannot lie in
the Constitution, which makes no such guarantee, but
leaves the scope of the jurisdiction of the federal dis-
trict courts to the wisdom of Congress. And no such
authority is to be found in §1983 itself . . . . There is,
in short, no reason to believe that Congress intended
to provide a person claiming a federal right an unre-
stricted opportunity to relitigate an issue already de-
Cite as: 545 U. S. ____ (2005) 19
Opinion of the Court
cided in state court simply because the issue arose in
a state proceeding in which he would rather not have
been engaged at all.” Id., at 103–104.24
As in Allen, we are presently concerned only with issues
actually decided by the state court that are dispositive of
federal claims raised under §1983. And, also as in Allen, it
is clear that petitioners would have preferred not to have
been forced to have their federal claims resolved by issues
decided in state court. Unfortunately for petitioners, it is
entirely unclear why their preference for a federal forum
should matter for constitutional or statutory purposes.
The only distinction between this case and Allen that is
possibly relevant is the fact that petitioners here origi-
nally invoked the jurisdiction of a Federal District Court,
which abstained on Pullman grounds while petitioners
returned to state court. But petitioners’ as-applied tak-
ings claims were never properly before the District Court
because they were unripe. And, as we have already ex-
plained, the Court of Appeals invoked Pullman abstention
only with respect to petitioners’ “substantially advances”
takings challenge, which petitioners then gratuitously
presented to the state court. At a bare minimum, with
respect to the facial takings claim, petitioners were “in an
offensive posture in [their] state court proceeding, and
could have proceeded first in federal court had [they]
wanted to litigate [their “substantially advances”] federal
claim in a federal forum.” Migra, 465 U. S., at 85, n. 7.
——————
24 We expressed similar views in Migra v. Warren City School Dist.
Bd. of Ed., 465 U. S. 75, 84 (1984):
“Although such a division may seem attractive from a plaintiff’s per-
spective, it is not the system established by §1738. That statute embod-
ies the view that it is more important to give full faith and credit to
state-court judgments than to ensure separate forums for federal and
state claims. This reflects a variety of concerns, including notions of
comity, the need to prevent vexatious litigation, and a desire to con-
serve judicial resources.”
20 SAN REMO HOTEL, L. P. v. CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN
FRANCISCO
Opinion of the Court
Thus, the only distinction between this case and Allen is a
distinction of no relevant significance.
The second reason we find petitioners’ argument unper-
suasive is that it assumes that courts may simply create
exceptions to 28 U. S. C. §1738 wherever courts deem
them appropriate. Even conceding, arguendo, the laud-
able policy goal of making federal forums available to
deserving litigants, we have expressly rejected petitioners’
view. “Such a fundamental departure from traditional
rules of preclusion, enacted into federal law, can be justi-
fied only if plainly stated by Congress.” Kremer v. Chemi-
cal Constr. Corp., 456 U. S. 461, 485 (1982). Our cases
have therefore made plain that “an exception to §1738 will
not be recognized unless a later statute contains an ex-
press or implied partial repeal.” Id., at 468 (citing Allen,
449 U. S., at 99). Even when the plaintiff’s resort to state
court is involuntary and the federal interest in denying
finality is robust, we have held that Congress “must
‘clearly manifest’ its intent to depart from §1738.” 456
U. S., at 477.
The same concerns animate our decision here. Congress
has not expressed any intent to exempt from the full faith
and credit statute federal takings claims. Consequently,
we apply our normal assumption that the weighty inter-
ests in finality and comity trump the interest in giving
losing litigants access to an additional appellate tribunal.
As we explained in Federated Department Stores, Inc. v.
Moitie, 452 U. S. 394, 401 (1981),
“we do not see the grave injustice which would be
done by the application of accepted principles of res
judicata. ‘Simple justice’ is achieved when a complex
body of law developed over a period of years is even-
handedly applied. The doctrine of res judicata serves
vital public interests beyond any individual judge’s
ad hoc determination of the equities in a particular
Cite as: 545 U. S. ____ (2005) 21
Opinion of the Court
case. There is simply ‘no principle of law or equity
which sanctions the rejection by a federal court of the
salutary principle of res judicata’ ” (quoting Heiser v.
Woodruff, 327 U. S. 726, 733 (1946)).
Third, petitioners have overstated the reach of William-
son County throughout this litigation. Petitioners were
never required to ripen the heart of their complaint—the
claim that the HCO was facially invalid because it failed
to substantially advance a legitimate state interest—in
state court. See Yee v. Escondido, 503 U. S. 519, 534
(1992). Petitioners therefore could have raised most of
their facial takings challenges, which by their nature
requested relief distinct from the provision of “just com-
pensation,” directly in federal court.25 Alternatively,
petitioners had the option of reserving their facial claims
while pursuing their as-applied claims along with their
petition for writ of administrative mandamus. Petitioners
did not have the right, however, to seek state review of the
same substantive issues they sought to reserve. The
purpose of the England reservation is not to grant plain-
tiffs a second bite at the apple in their forum of choice.
With respect to those federal claims that did require
ripening, we reject petitioners’ contention that Williamson
County forbids plaintiffs from advancing their federal
claims in state courts. The requirement that aggrieved
property owners must seek “compensation through the
procedures the State has provided for doing so,” 473 U. S.,
at 194, does not preclude state courts from hearing simul-
taneously a plaintiff’s request for compensation under
state law and the claim that, in the alternative, the denial
of compensation would violate the Fifth Amendment of the
——————
25 Inall events, petitioners may no longer advance such claims given
our recent holding that the “ ‘substantially advances’ formula is not a
valid takings test, and indeed . . . has no proper place in our takings
jurisprudence.” Lingle, 544 U. S., at ___ (slip op., at 18).
22 SAN REMO HOTEL, L. P. v. CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN
FRANCISCO
Opinion of the Court
Federal Constitution. Reading Williamson County to
preclude plaintiffs from raising such claims in the alterna-
tive would erroneously interpret our cases as requiring
property owners to “resort to piecemeal litigation or oth-
erwise unfair procedures.” MacDonald, Sommer & Frates
v. Yolo County, 477 U. S. 340, 350, n. 7 (1986).
It is hardly a radical notion to recognize that, as a prac-
tical matter, a significant number of plaintiffs will neces-
sarily litigate their federal takings claims in state courts.
It was settled well before Williamson County that “a claim
that the application of government regulations effects a
taking of a property interest is not ripe until the govern-
ment entity charged with implementing the regulations
has reached a final decision regarding the application of
the regulations to the property at issue.” 473 U. S., at
186. As a consequence, there is scant precedent for the
litigation in federal district court of claims that a state
agency has taken property in violation of the Fifth
Amendment’s takings clause. To the contrary, most of the
cases in our takings jurisprudence, including nearly all of
the cases on which petitioners rely, came to us on writs of
certiorari from state courts of last resort.26
Moreover, this is not the only area of law in which we
have recognized limits to plaintiffs’ ability to press their
federal claims in federal courts. See, e.g., Fair Assessment
in Real Estate Assn., Inc. v. McNary, 454 U. S. 100, 116
(1981) (holding that taxpayers are “barred by the principle
of comity from asserting §1983 actions against the validity
——————
26 See, e.g., Dolan, 512 U. S., at 383; Yee, 503 U. S., at 526; Nollan, 483
U. S., at 830; First English Evangelical Lutheran Church of Glendale v.
County of Los Angeles, 482 U. S. 304, 310–311 (1987); Penn Central, 438
U. S., at 120–122. Indeed, Justice Holmes’ famous “too far” formulation,
which spawned our regulatory takings jurisprudence, was announced
in a case that came to this Court via a writ of certiorari to Pennsyl-
vania’s highest court. Pennsylvania Coal Co. v. Mahon, 260 U. S. 393,
415 (1922).
Cite as: 545 U. S. ____ (2005) 23
Opinion of the Court
of state tax systems in federal courts”). State courts are
fully competent to adjudicate constitutional challenges to
local land-use decisions. Indeed, state courts undoubtedly
have more experience than federal courts do in resolving
the complex factual, technical, and legal questions related
to zoning and land-use regulations.
At base, petitioners’ claim amounts to little more than
the concern that it is unfair to give preclusive effect to
state-court proceedings that are not chosen, but are in-
stead required in order to ripen federal takings claims.
Whatever the merits of that concern may be, we are not
free to disregard the full faith and credit statute solely to
preserve the availability of a federal forum. The Court of
Appeals was correct to decline petitioners’ invitation to
ignore the requirements of 28 U. S. C. §1738. The judg-
ment of the Court of Appeals is therefore affirmed.
It is so ordered
Cite as: 545 U. S. ____ (2005) 1
REHNQUIST, C. J., concurring in judgment
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
_________________
No. 04–340
_________________
SAN REMO HOTEL, L. P., ET AL., PETITIONERS v.
CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO,
CALIFORNIA, ET AL.
ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF
APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
[June 20, 2005]
CHIEF JUSTICE REHNQUIST, with whom JUSTICE
O’CONNOR, JUSTICE KENNEDY, and JUSTICE THOMAS join,
concurring in the judgment.
I agree that the judgment of the Court of Appeals should
be affirmed. Whatever the reasons for petitioners’ chosen
course of litigation in the state courts, it is quite clear that
they are now precluded by the full faith and credit statute,
28 U. S. C. §1738, from relitigating in their 42 U. S. C.
§1983 action those issues which were adjudicated by the
California courts. See Migra v. Warren City School Dist.
Bd. of Ed., 465 U. S. 75, 84 (1984); Allen v. McCurry, 449
U. S. 90, 103–105 (1980). There is no basis for us to except
from §1738’s reach all claims brought under the Takings
Clause. See, e.g., Kremer v. Chemical Constr. Corp., 456
U. S. 461, 485 (1982). I write separately to explain why I
think part of our decision in Williamson County Regional
Planning Comm’n v. Hamilton Bank of Johnson City, 473
U. S. 172 (1985), may have been mistaken.
In Williamson County, the respondent land developer
filed a §1983 suit in federal court alleging a regulatory
takings claim after a regional planning commission disap-
proved respondent’s plat proposals, but before respondent
appealed that decision to the zoning board of appeals. Id.,
at 181–182. Rather than reaching the merits, we found
2 SAN REMO HOTEL, L. P. v. CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN
FRANCISCO
REHNQUIST, C. J., concurring in judgment
the claim was brought prematurely. Id., at 200. We first
held that the claim was “not ripe until the government
entity charged with implementing the regulations [had]
reached a final decision regarding the application of the
regulations to the property at issue.” Id., at 186. Because
respondent failed to seek variances from the planning
commission or the zoning board of appeals, we decided
that respondent had failed to meet the final-decision
requirement. Id., at 187–191. We then noted a “second
reason the taking claim [was] not yet ripe”: “respondent
did not seek compensation through the procedures the
State [had] provided for doing so.” Id., at 194. Until the
claimant had received a final denial of compensation
through all available state procedures, such as by an
inverse condemnation action, we said he could not “claim a
violation of the Just Compensation Clause.” Id., at 195–
196.
It is not clear to me that Williamson County was correct
in demanding that, once a government entity has reached
a final decision with respect to a claimant’s property, the
claimant must seek compensation in state court before
bringing a federal takings claim in federal court. The
Court in Williamson County purported to interpret the
Fifth Amendment in divining this state-litigation re-
quirement. See, e.g., id., at 194, n. 13 (“The nature of the
constitutional right . . . requires that a property owner
utilize procedures for obtaining compensation before
bringing a §1983 action”). More recently, we have referred
to it as merely a prudential requirement. Suitum v. Tahoe
Regional Planning Agency, 520 U. S. 725, 733–734 (1997).
It is not obvious that either constitutional or prudential
principles require claimants to utilize all state compensa-
tion procedures before they can bring a federal takings
claim. Cf. Patsy v. Board of Regents of Fla., 457 U. S. 496,
516 (1982) (holding that plaintiffs suing under §1983 are
not required to have exhausted state administrative
Cite as: 545 U. S. ____ (2005) 3
REHNQUIST, C. J., concurring in judgment
remedies).1
The Court today attempts to shore up the state-
litigation requirement by referring to Fair Assessment in
Real Estate Assn., Inc. v. McNary, 454 U. S. 100 (1981).
Ante, at 22–23. There, we held that the principle of comity
(reflected in the Tax Injunction Act, 28 U. S. C. §1341)
bars taxpayers from asserting §1983 claims against the
validity of state tax systems in federal courts. 454 U. S.,
at 116. Our decision that such suits must be brought in
state court was driven by the unique and sensitive inter-
ests at stake when federal courts confront claims that
States acted impermissibly in administering their own tax
systems. Id., at 102–103, 107–113. Those historically
grounded, federalism-based concerns had led to a long-
standing, “fundamental principle of comity between fed-
eral courts and state governments . . . , particularly in the
area of state taxation,” a principle which predated the
enactment of §1983 itself. Id., at 103, 107–114. We de-
cided that those interests favored requiring that taxpayers
bring challenges to the validity of state tax systems in
state court, despite the strong interests favoring federal-
court review of alleged constitutional violations by state
officials. Id., at 115–116.
The Court today makes no claim that any such long-
standing principle of comity toward state courts in han-
dling federal takings claims existed at the time William-
son County was decided, nor that one has since developed.
The Court does remark, however, that state courts are
more familiar with the issues involved in local land-use
——————
1 In creating the state-litigation rule, the Court, in addition to relying
on the Fifth Amendment’s text, analogized to Ruckelshaus v. Monsanto
Co., 467 U. S. 986 (1984), and Parratt v. Taylor, 451 U. S. 527 (1981). As
several of petitioners’ amici in this case have urged, those cases provided
limited support for the state-litigation requirement. See Brief for Defend-
ers of Property Rights et al. as Amici Curiae 9–12; Brief for Elizabeth J.
Neumont et al. as Amici Curiae 10–14.
4 SAN REMO HOTEL, L. P. v. CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN
FRANCISCO
REHNQUIST, C. J., concurring in judgment
and zoning regulations, and it suggests that this makes it
proper to relegate federal takings claims to state court.
Ante, at 23. But it is not apparent that any such expertise
matches the type of historically grounded, federalism-
based interests we found necessary to our decision in Fair
Assessment. In any event, the Court has not explained
why we should hand authority over federal takings claims
to state courts, based simply on their relative familiarity
with local land-use decisions and proceedings, while allow-
ing plaintiffs to proceed directly to federal court in cases
involving, for example, challenges to municipal land-use
regulations based on the First Amendment, see, e.g.,
Renton v. Playtime Theatres, Inc., 475 U. S. 41 (1986);
Young v. American Mini Theatres, Inc., 427 U. S. 50 (1976),
or the Equal Protection Clause, see, e.g., Cleburne v. Cle-
burne Living Center, Inc., 473 U. S. 432 (1985); Village of
Belle Terre v. Boraas, 416 U. S. 1 (1974). In short, the
affirmative case for the state-litigation requirement has
yet to be made.
Finally, Williamson County’s state-litigation rule has
created some real anomalies, justifying our revisiting the
issue. For example, our holding today ensures that liti-
gants who go to state court to seek compensation will
likely be unable later to assert their federal takings claims
in federal court. Ante, at 22. And, even if preclusion law
would not block a litigant’s claim, the Rooker-Feldman
doctrine might, insofar as Williamson County can be read
to characterize the state courts’ denial of compensation as
a required element of the Fifth Amendment takings claim.
See Exxon Mobil Corp. v. Saudi Basic Industries Corp.,
544 U. S. ___ (2005). As the Court recognizes, ante, at 22,
Williamson County all but guarantees that claimants will
be unable to utilize the federal courts to enforce the Fifth
Amendment’s just compensation guarantee. The basic
principle that state courts are competent to enforce federal
rights and to adjudicate federal takings claims is sound,
Cite as: 545 U. S. ____ (2005) 5
REHNQUIST, C. J., concurring in judgment
see ante, at 23, and would apply to any number of federal
claims. Cf. 28 U. S. C. §2254 (providing for limited federal
habeas review of state-court adjudications of alleged viola-
tions of the Constitution). But that principle does not
explain why federal takings claims in particular should be
singled out to be confined to state court, in the absence of
any asserted justification or congressional directive.2
* * *
I joined the opinion of the Court in Williamson County.
But further reflection and experience lead me to think
that the justifications for its state-litigation requirement
are suspect, while its impact on takings plaintiffs is dra-
matic. Here, no court below has addressed the correctness
of Williamson County, neither party has asked us to re-
consider it, and resolving the issue could not benefit peti-
tioners. In an appropriate case, I believe the Court should
reconsider whether plaintiffs asserting a Fifth Amend-
ment takings claim based on the final decision of a state or
local government entity must first seek compensation in
state courts.
——————
2 Indeed, in some States the courts themselves apply the state-
litigation requirement from Williamson County Regional Planning
Comm’n v. Hamilton Bank of Johnson City, 473 U. S. 172 (1985),
refusing to entertain any federal takings claim until the claimant
receives a final denial of compensation through all the available state
procedures. See, e.g., Breneric Assoc. v. City of Del Mar, 69 Cal. App.
4th 166, 188–189, 81 Cal. Rptr. 2d 324, 338–339 (1998); Melillo v. City
of New Haven, 249 Conn. 138, 154, n. 28, 732 A. 2d 133, 138, n. 28
(1999). This precludes litigants from asserting their federal takings
claim even in state court. The Court tries to avoid this anomaly by
asserting that, for plaintiffs attempting to raise a federal takings claim
in state court as an alternative to their state claims, Williamson County
does not command that the state courts themselves impose the state-
litigation requirement. Ante, at 21–22. But that is so only if William-
son County’s state-litigation requirement is merely a prudential rule,
and not a constitutional mandate, a question that the Court today
conspicuously leaves open.