As you know, for many years, IJ led the fight against eminent domain abuse, where government takes property not for a public use, like a road or a fire station, but for private economic development. In 2005, in one of its most notorious decisions, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 against the homeowners in New London in the Kelo case. But IJ turned our loss in court into a decisive win in state legislatures, state courts, and in the court of public opinion. As a result, 47 states have since strengthened their protections against eminent domain abuse.
What was once a nationwide problem has been relegated to a handful of states that refuse to change their laws. And, at IJ, we never give up and we never lose site of the long-range mission—not only to protect property owners in every state but to overturn bad precedent like Kelo.
And that determination takes us to upstate New York. Paul and Robin Richer grew up and raised their family in the Burnet Road neighborhood of Onondaga County, New York. They want to spend the rest of their lives in the house Paul’s father built in the 1950s. But the county has other plans for their family home. Like the wholly misguided efforts in New London that led to the Kelo fiasco, the County hopes that adding a few extra acres will make a large vacant lot the County already owns more attractive to a private company that would pay higher taxes. So naturally it wants to kick the Richers and their neighbors out for this pie-in-the-sky promise of economic development. As you might recall, in Kelo, the homes were taken, the promised investment never came, and the land has been empty ever since.
So we are working with the Burnet Road homeowners at the grassroots to fight back against these takings. And, if the County uses eminent domain to take these homes, we will see them in court. We know that now’s the time to bring the Kelo issue back before the Supreme Court. With the retirement of Justice Breyer this term, only one justice will remain on the Court since the time Kelo was decided. And several of the current justices have indicated that they want the Court to reexamine Kelo when presented the opportunity. We will give the Court that opportunity. Given the state of law in New York on eminent domain, we may lose in the lower courts, but that would tee the issue up perfectly for the Supreme Court to take another look and potentially eliminate takings for private development once and for all and in every state, including New York.
IJ will do everything in our power to save the homes on Burnet Road and stop eminent domain abuse everywhere.
Scott
Scott G. Bullock
President and General Counsel
Institute for Justice