Articles

Post-Kelo reform still blighted

December 22, 2009 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author: R. S. Radford In the 2009 volume of the Supreme Court Economic Review, Vanderbilt professor James W. Ely, Jr., takes a look at political responses to the Supreme Court’s horrendous decision in Kelo v. City of New London, and generally finds them lacking. Kelo, for those who may have slept through the past five … ...

Articles

Speculating on the public dime : Burien is latest eminent domain loser

June 30, 2010 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author: Daniel Himebaugh The city of Burien, Washington is in the news this week because its "Town Square" condo project has run into serious financial difficulty.  While the reporting on Town Square's problems has highlighted slow sales, some vital details about the development are not being reported.  The property where ...

Articles

The continuing fight against eminent domain abuse

October 28, 2010 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author:  Damien M. Schiff Last week, PLF filed an amicus brief in support of the property owners' petition for certiorari in the United States Supreme Court in Tuck-It-Away, Inc. v. New York State Urban Development Corporation.  The case is about Columbia University's plan to extend its campus into the Manhattanville ...

Articles

House of Representatives passes eminent domain reform bill

February 29, 2012 | By TIMOTHY SANDEFUR

After the infamous decision in Kelo v. New London, the fight over eminent domain abuse shifted primarily to states, many of which passed laws designed (or, at least, pretending) to restrict the power of eminent domain. Federal reform seemed less likely, for a number of reasons—primarily because most eminent domain abuse occurs in the name … ...

Articles

Celebrating a victory for property owners in California

March 07, 2012 | By TIMOTHY SANDEFUR

This morning, I was among the speakers at the “final” meeting of Municipal Officials for Redevelopment Reform, an organization led for years by California Assemblyman Chris Norby to fight back against the Eminent Domain Industry in California. Late last year, Governor Jerry Brown signed legislation to abolish the state’s Redevelop ...

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Eminent domain as a bailout

June 11, 2012 | By TIMOTHY SANDEFUR

Some local governments in southern California are considering using eminent domain to condemn “underwater” mortgages, so as to allow people who bought houses they can’t afford to continue living in those houses; the whole scheme funded with money raised by yet more government indebtedness. As long-time PLF friend Gideon Kanner exp ...

Articles

PLF's Timothy Sandefur talks with Armstrong & Getty about eminent domain

August 13, 2012 | By TIMOTHY SANDEFUR

I’ll be talking with Armstrong & Getty at 8 this morning about the efforts by California local governments to use eminent domain to seize “underwater” mortgages. You can listen online here. Update: You can listen to the podcast recording here. … ...

Articles

Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone

October 28, 2013 | By ANASTASIA BODEN

Supporters of property rights will no doubt remember the sad saga of Kelo v. New London. In  that case, the Supreme Court permitted the city to use its eminent domain power to condemn the homes of Suzette Kelo and her neighbors to make way for a “high-end residential district”—which would adjoin a new Pfizer plant in the ̷ ...

Articles

Will California worsen its already terrible eminent domain laws?

January 06, 2014 | By TIMOTHY SANDEFUR

When the infamous Kelo v. New London was decided in 2005, California was already one of the worst states in the nation when it came to eminent domain. In the five years leading up to that decision, California had used or threatened eminent domain against home and business owners some 858 times for the benefit … ...