Common Sense Political Thought

Sharon noted on her site:

One More Waste of the Kelo Case

Pfizer abandons site of infamous Kelo eminent domain taking

The private homes that New London, Conn., took away from Suzette Kelo and her neighbors have been torn down. Their former site is a wasteland of fields of weeds, a monument to the power of eminent domain.

But now Pfizer, the drug company whose neighboring research facility had been the original cause of the homes’ seizure, has just announced that it is closing up shop in New London.

To lure those jobs to New London a decade ago, the local government promised to demolish the older residential neighborhood adjacent to the land Pfizer was buying for next-to-nothing. Suzette Kelo fought the taking to the Supreme Court, and lost. Five justices found this redevelopment met the constitutional hurdle of “public use.”

They took her house for nothing.

The case, Kelo v City of New London, can be read here. In some ways, given the limitations the Justices put on the case — “This Court’s authority, however, extends only to determining whether the City’s proposed condemnations are for a “public use” within the meaning of the Fifth Amendment to the Federal Constitution.” — the outcome was really unsurprising. But Justice Stevens also noted that “many States already impose “public use” requirements that are stricter than the federal baseline,” and it seems to me that this unhappy conclusion to the Kelo fiasco demonstrates the necessity of states, and the federal government, to limit themselves in doing what they see as for the public good.