My New Video on Kelo v. City of New London
The video is part of the Federalist Society's series on important Supreme Court decisions.
The video is part of the Federalist Society's series on important Supreme Court decisions.
In this case, it enables the state to declare the area around Penn Station in New York City "blighted" and thereby authorize the use of eminent domain to take property for transfer to private interests.
Libertarianism is far from wildly popular, overall. But libertarian causes have done well in referenda in recent years. We can build on that.
Today is the anniversary of one of the most controversial - and most unpopular - property rights decisions in the history of the Supreme Court.
Fourteen years after the notorious Kelo case, the state where the case originated still has one of the nation's weakest eminent domain reform laws. A bill currently before the state legislature could change that.
A bill in the state legislature would stop cities from seizing property and handing it over to developers.
The court concluded that property may only be condemned for projects that will proceed in "the reasonably foreseeable future."
The factory stands on land seized in a taking that forcibly displaced over 4000 people, and attracted widespread widespread opposition. The lessons and legacy of the Poletown case remain relevant today.
A Wisconsin town is spending billions, seizing homes, and breaking state law to lure a Taiwanese company.
The eminent domain reform bill is the same legislation that has passed the House three previous times since 2005. Each time, it died in the Senate without ever coming to a vote.