William O. Douglas

“ Why should one who designs, constructs, and uses an airport be in a more favorable position so far as the Fourteenth Amendment is concerned? That the instant 'taking' was 'for public use' is not debatable. For respondent agreed with the C.A.A. that it would operate the airport 'for the use and benefit of the public,' that it would operate it 'on fair and reasonable terms and without unjust discrimination,' and that it would not allow any carrier to acquire 'any exclusive right' to its use. ”

“ We start with United States v. Causby, supra, which held that the United States by low flights of its military planes over a chicken farm made the property unusable for that purpose and that therefore there had been a 'taking', in the constitutional sense, of an air easement for which compensation must be made. At the time of the Causby case, Congress had placed the navigable airspace in the public domain, defining it as 'airspace above the minimum safe altitudes of flight prescribed' by the C.A.A. 44 Stat. ”

“ The slope gradient of the approach area is as 40 is to 3,250 feet or 81 feet, which leaves a clearance of 11.36 feet between the bottom of the glide angle and petitioner's chimney.
The airlines that use the airport are lessees of respondent ”