RECENT FEDERAL DECISIONS

March 2003

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Third Circuit Establishes "Shocks the Conscience" Test for Land Use Based Substantive Due Process Claims
United Artists Theatre Circuit, Inc. v. The Township of Warrington, PA, et al.

In a two-to-one opinion contradicting its own precedent, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals recently held, over a sharp dissent, that the proper standard for evaluating whether a town's Board of Supervisors violates a developer's substantive due process rights is whether the Supervisors' actions "shock the conscience."