by Timothy Sandefur
It was on the day before Thanksgiving in 2000 that Susette Kelo and her neighbors received notices that they were to be thrown out of their homes by the city of New London, so that bureaucrats could replace their properties with a new development project. It's been a long and hard road since then. But today, new laws in at least 10 states, and new constitutional amendments in 10 more, prohibit the use of eminent domain for private development.
For this development, we at the Pacific Legal Foundation give thanks this year to all our allies in the property rights movement: the Institute for Justice, the Pacific Research Institute, the Cato Institute, the Reason Public Policy Foundation, the Mackinac Center, the Claremont Institute, Steven Greenhut of the Orange County Register, Ilya Somin and Steven Eagle of George Mason University School of Law, Richard Epstein of the University of Chicago Law School, the late Bernard Seigan of the University of San Diego, and the many other groups and individuals who have helped us to bring the message to legislators, judges, and citizens: government must respect our fundamental rights to our private property.
Most of all, we're thankful to the many people out there who have contributed to the Pacific Legal Foundation, to help us in our efforts to protect property rights across the nation. As a non-profit organization, we depend on your donations to keep working in state and federal courts in defense of the rights of America's home and business owners. With your continuing help, we can keep defending the Constitution for many years to come.
Happy Thanksgiving everybody!