Just thought I'd post the articles since the urls aren't working.

Supreme Court Rules Cities May Seize Homes

By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer
Fri Jun 24, 7:34 AM ET



NEW LONDON, Conn. - Seven homeowners in this small waterfront community lost a groundbreaking U.S. Supreme Court decision Thursday when justices ruled that City Hall may take their property through eminent domain to make way for a hotel and convention center.

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Word of the high court decision spread around Bill Von Winkle's part of town like news of a passing relative. "Hello?" he answered his cell phone. "Yeah, we lost. I know, hard to believe, huh?"

"I spent all the money I had," said Von Winkle, a retired deli owner, of the properties he bought in the Fort Trumbull neighborhood. "I sold sandwiches to buy these properties. It took 21 years."

The court's decision drew a scathing dissent from Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who argued the decision favors rich corporations.

The fight over Fort Trumbull has been raging for years. New London once was a center for the whaling industry and later became a manufacturing hub. More recently the city has suffered the kind of economic woes afflicting urban areas across the country.

City officials envision a commercial development including a riverfront hotel, health club and offices that would attract tourists to the Thames riverfront, complementing the adjoining Pfizer center and a proposed Coast Guard museum.

Most homeowners sold their properties to make way for wrecking crews, but seven families stubbornly refused to sell. Collectively, they owned 15 houses.

"The U.S. Supreme Court destroyed everybody's lives today, everybody who owns a home," said Richard Beyer, owner of two rental properties in the once-vibrant immigrant neighborhood.

Nationwide, however, legal experts said they don't expect local governments to rush to claim homes.

"The message of the case to cities is yes, you can use eminent domain, but you better be careful and conduct hearings," said Thomas Merrill, a Columbia law professor who specializes in property rights.

In his majority opinion, Justice John Paul Stevens said New London could pursue private development under the Fifth Amendment, which allows governments to take private property if the land is for public use. He said the project the city has in mind promises to bring more jobs and revenue.

"Promoting economic development is a traditional and long accepted function of government," Stevens wrote. He added that local officials are better positioned than federal judges to decide what's best for a community.

He was joined in his opinion by other members of the court's liberal wing — David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer, as well as Reagan appointee Justice Anthony Kennedy, in noting that states are free to pass additional protections if they see fit.

The four-member bloc typically has favored greater deference to cities, which historically have used the power of eminent domain for urban renewal projects.

At least eight states — Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, South Carolina and Washington — forbid the use of eminent domain for economic development unless it is to eliminate blight. Other states either expressly allow private property to be taken for private economic purposes or have not spoken clearly to the question.

Meanwhile, the decision did little to bring city officials and property owners here closer together.

Under the ruling, residents still will be entitled to "just compensation" for their homes as provided under the Fifth Amendment. However, homeowners had refused to move at any price, calling it an unjustified taking of their property.

City Manager Richard Brown said he expects more lawsuits, but believes the land fight is over and doesn't expect a showdown when bulldozers arrive in the neighborhood.

Landowners in the lawsuit, however, pledged to continue their fight.

"It's a little shocking to believe you can lose your home in this country," said Von Winkle, who said he would battle beyond the lawsuits and fight the bulldozers if necessary. "I won't be going anywhere."

The case is Kelo et al v. City of New London, 04-108.

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Associated Press writer Susan Haigh in Hartford, Conn., contributed to this report.

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Ruling leaves door open to abuse

Fri Jun 24, 8:53 AM ET



For Suzette Kelo, protecting her Victorian dream house from the urban renewal bulldozer was always going to be an uphill fight. She was not only battling her city and its zeal to attract business to a depressed community. She was also up against more than a century of shifting law.

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On Thursday, Kelo and her neighbors in New London, Conn., lost. The Supreme Court ruled that the city was within its rights to seize their properties to round out a 90-acre waterfront redevelopment site.


The 5-4 decision, while rooted in high-court precedents over the past 50 years, leaves a door wide open for exploitation if craven or overzealous local officials are not restrained. States and localities clearly have leeway to seize private land, not just for a public purpose, such as a road or park, but also to hand to private developers. It's a power that invites abuse.


Lawyers for the property owners in New London had argued that such takings were unconstitutional, relying on the appealing reasoning that an individual's right to his home should not be put at risk. But the property owners were bucking the legal reality that as far back as the building of the railroads in the 19th century, the definition of public use has been steadily widened to embrace such public benefits as slum clearance and job creation - regardless of whether private parties might also profit.


And the court has long deferred to the judgment of state and local officials on such issues. Even Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who wrote Thursday's dissent, questioned when the case was argued in February whether the justices should "second-guess" New London's conclusion.


New London impressed the court majority with a carefully formulated economic development plan that would broadly benefit the community. But other localities have brazenly abused their power to seize citizens' property:


• A city in Washington state removed a woman in her 80s from her home of 55 years supposedly to expand a sewer plant, then sold the land to an auto dealership.


• A New Jersey development agency tried to seize an elderly woman's home and two businesses to provide more parking for one of Donald Trump's casino hotels; the state Supreme Court stopped it.


• A city in Kansas took a used-car lot and turned it over to the new-car dealer next door, who had failed in his efforts to buy the site from the previous owner.


The Supreme Court's majority pointed out that states have the power to impose stricter requirements on taking private property. Many already do.


The onus is now on the rest to protect property owners against such victimization, while allowing the fair acquisition of land when it is truly in the public interest.