[rktman]

Hey, a big thanks to the supremes for doing something for the betterment of the community. As to the home/land owners, yup, you got screwed BIG time.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

No problem.

All money and property rightfully belong to the government anyway.

[BenLurkin]

Kelo is an obscenity, but the even greater obscenity is Hawaii Housing Authority v. Midkiff http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaii_Housing_Authority_v._Midkiff — the outrageous precedential decision relied on by the statists justices who rendered the Kelo decision.

[Ann Archy]

Eminent Domain is SUPPOSED to be seizing Private Property FOR THE GOVERNMENTS'S USE!! This was for PRIVATE USE!!

We should have know then that we live in a BANANA REPUBLIC!!

[woodbutcher1963]

I will play devils advocate for a minute. While I do not agreed with the courts decision that eminent domain should be used to take property from one individual and sold to another, in this case it may have worked out well for the forced sellers.

In 2005, when this took place the “fair market value” for the property was probably at the highest it had ever been. Since that time, its value probably has decreased by 20-30%.
If anyone out there would like to buy my home at what it was worth in 2005, come and get it.

So, in tis instance maybe it was the buyers who paid too much and got screwed BIG time.

[woodbutcher1963]

What is ironic and kind of funny is that the property was taken to create jobs, improve the economic landscape and eventually give a much higher return on revenue to the city of New London, CT. Now the land sits empty with NO TAXES being paid on it at all.

Someone may now post the dude from the Simpsons saying:

HA HA !

[trapped_in_LA]

“We’re from the government and we’re here to help”, used to be the old joke, still is and anyone looking to government for a solution is out of luck.

[Pollster1]

I hope public outrage over the theft of the land helped to kill the project. A shopping mall that half of all potential customers have placed on a permanent boycott list has to be a terrible investment. The next time around, we need to muster the same level of outrage and again kill (or permanently boycott) the project. Those “capitalists” who hope to profit from insider connections need to be resisted - forever.

[Daffynition]

Justice O'Connor:

Any property may now be taken for the benefit of another private party, but the fallout from this decision will not be random. The beneficiaries are likely to be those citizens with disproportionate influence and power in the political process, including large corporations and development firms. As for the victims, the government now has license to transfer property from those with fewer resources to those with more. The Founders cannot have intended this perverse result.

This is what the peice of land that Kelo's house occupied now looks like:

After the houses were destroyed, nothing happened. No R&D complex, no gentrified condos, no influx of high-net-worth PhDs. Nothing. Shortly after this photo, news came from Pfizer, they were leaving the city.

[rottndog]

The Kelo decision is the worst SCOTUS decision since Dred Scott.

There is no way to misinterpret the plain language of Constitution as it applies to eminent domain...this was a deliberate act by five tyrants in black robes to eviscerate the concept and importance of private property rights.