| Court: | New York Cort of Appeals |
| Facts: | As low-rent landlords go out of business, the city takes buildings over. They find squatters and drug dealers. They want to get things into more order, so they want to start evicting the squatters. |
| Posture: | Plaintiffs content that their equal protection and due process rights are being violated. The initial court bars any new eviction notices until people have been given notice of the right to apply for a lease, procedures for doing so, and an opportunity to do so. The city appeals. |
| Issue: | Do squatters in these buildings have any property rights that would bar eviction? |
| Holding: | No. Reversed. |
| Rule: | In order to have rights, you need more than a unilateral expectation; you need a legitimate claim to something. |
| Reasoning: | These are the poorest of the poor, and the eviction procedures are attempting to be humanitarian. This doesn't create any substantive rights, though. |
| Dicta: | |