Experts agree: Luster is off eminent domain after U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Kelo
“Legal experts attending a conference Friday titled “Kelo: A Decade Later” concluded that eminent domain is being used less frequently today than it was when the famous U.S. Supreme Court case involving the Fort Trumbull neighborhood in New London was decided.
“We definitely lost in the court of public opinion,” said David Parkhurst, who at the time of the Kelo case filed a brief in favor of the City of New London’s eminent domain taking on behalf of the National League of Cities. “We were hammered … and it took us by surprise.”
Clark Neily, a senior attorney at the libertarian-leaning Institute for Justice who argued on behalf of lead plaintiff Susette Kelo during the Supreme Court case, agreed during a Friday panel discussion at the University of Connecticut School of Law’s William F. Starr reading room that the tide turned against using eminent domain to take property for private development soon after the June 23, 2005, decision.
Neily, who lost the court case, called the 5-4 Supreme Court decision in favor of taking property to spur economic development “one of the most reviled decisions” in the history of the top U.S. judicial body. He said several states, including Florida, have passed very strong laws restricting municipalities’ power of eminent domain. The change of heart occurred after several Florida cases in which eminent domain laws had been “disgracefully abused,” he added.
After losing the Supreme Court case, Neily said his organization decided to focus on state laws, having been given an opening by the high court to fight eminent domain case by case on a grass-roots level. Funded with $3 million in donations by the Castle Coalition, the Institute for Justice combined its legal acumen with a public relations campaign that won over a majority of U.S. citizens and many state legislatures, he said.”
Howard, Lee. The Day 21 March 2015.