The Government as Economic Developer: A Kelo Update
Posted March 30th, 2009 at 9.57am in First Principles.
On June 23, 2005, the United States Supreme Court handed down a 5-4 decision affirming the state of Connecticut’s right to evict U.S. citizens from their homes for purposes of “economic development.” In Kelo v. City of New London, plaintiff Suzette Kelo, who had recently bought her dream home on the bank of the Thames River, sued to stop New London from using its eminent domain power to condemn and destroy her home. New London wanted to destroy Kelo’s home so that Pfizer, Inc. could build $300 million research facility.
The government got its way. 78 homes have been destroyed. But how is that government-led economic development going? The CATO Institute has an update:

March 30, 2009 Ozzy6900, CT writes:
The Liberal Court flexed it muscles and crushed the Constitution on this one! Think of it, a company can now petition the City to get any land that they want (here in CT). There is no protection to the land owner as if they do not comply, the Supreme Court will just hand the land to the company.
I shouldn’t blame only the Liberals, here because the Republicans of CT did nothing to stop this either! In this incident, everyone fell asleep at the wheel and the ship sailed out of control. The land owners of New London, CT called on everyone that they possibly could but no one would put enough effort into the problem. Of course, Senator Dodd was too busy screwing up the banking system at this time and didn’t lend any assistance to his own constituents (no suprise here).
Be aware that if you are a land owner in the State of CT, you could very well loose your right to that land if it pleases the Court!