Bay View, Inc. ex rel. AK Native Village Corporations v. Ahtna, Inc.

Opinion by Judge KOZINSKI.

OPINION

We decide whether a court may strike down a statute as violating the takings clause when the Tucker Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1491 , provides an avenue for obtaining compensation.

I

Congress giveth and it taketh away. At most, that’s what happened here to appellants, an Alaska native village corporation and an at-large shareholder of a Regional Corporation. In 1971, Gongress cut an unusual deal with Alaskan natives: In exchange for extinguishing all aboriginal title claims, Congress passed the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA), which gave natives 40 million acres of land, almost $1 billion in cash and shares of stock in newly-created native corporations. See H.R.Rep. No. 528, 92nd Cong., 1st Sess., reprinted in 1971 U.S.C.C.A.N. 2192, 2193; 43 U.S.C. § 1601 et. seq. The land and money were distributed among 13 Regional Corporations and over 200 Village Corporations, each of which lies within the territory of a Regional Corporation. Because not all land in Alaska is of equal value, the Regional Corporations are required to even out the bounty by sharing with each other 70% of their revenue derived from natural resources. 43 U.S.C. § 1606 (i).…