Eminent Domain Moratorium

Jacob Sullum | July 12, 2005

Responding to popular outrage over the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision upholding the use of eminent domain for economic development, Connecticut legislators and Gov. M. Jodi Rell are calling for a moratorium on the practice until the legislature can decide whether it should be permitted. The moratorium would prevent forced transfers of property from one private owner to another that are aimed at generating jobs and tax revenue. The Institute for Justice, which represented the New London, Connecticut, property owners who brought the Supreme Court case, says the moratorium should apply to them as well. "When government intrudes on our homes," Rell said, "it must have a defensible reason. In the New London case, the reason was not defensible."