Apology Adds An Epilogue To Kelo Case [eminent domain]

Hartford Courant ^ | September 18, 2011 | JEFF BENEDICT

[Daffynition]

If a state Supreme Court judge approaches a journalist at a private dinner and says something newsworthy about an important decision, is the journalist free to publish the statement?

I faced that situation at a dinner honoring the Connecticut Supreme Court at the New Haven Lawn Club on May 11, 2010. That night I had delivered the keynote address on the U.S. Supreme Court's infamous 5-4 decision in Kelo v. New London. Susette Kelo was in the audience and I used the occasion to tell her personal story, as documented in my book "Little Pink House."

[Daffynition]

Some more images taken by a private person, of the barren site of the Kelo house. A dark time in Connecticut history.

[skinkinthegrass]

thanks, for the information / thread / post.
Sarah Palin, was / is Right....
Crony Capitalism IS Evil.
no matter who profits.

[Daffynition]

The Institute for Justice fought the good fight. They were there the whole way.

[Daffynition]

Yep. just as its tax breaks are set to expire, Pfizer left town. $80 million in taxpayer money up in smoke. No one took the fall for this debacle.

[Hiddigeigei]

The government took land from the settlers (farmers) to give to the railroad companies in the 1800s. If I remember my history correctly, the government gave the companies miles on either side of the tracks.

[SoCal Pubbie]

At least in that case the railroads were considered “public” transportation routes, like highways. They are highly regulated and almost like public utilities. It can be argued that railroads provide a vital public service.

The Kelo decision means that government can force you to sell your home so that a private yacht club or golf course can be built. The justification is that more tax revenues can be raised. It was criminal, IMHO.

[ridesthemiles]

If I remember my history correctly, the government gave the companies miles on either side of the tracks.””’

The railroads got sections of land, in a checkerboard manner, so that settlers could have places to grow. Settlers could also buy land from the railroad.

Pushing the railroad had a multi-useful ending. People & businesses went west. Cattle were trucked east to larger markets.

Of course, the cattle had to be driven to the railheads from the ranches first, & that is the basis for the TV series “Rawhide”.

[Forgotten Amendments]

The Institute for Justice fought the good fight.

Absolutely! They're a wonderful group. They deserve everyone's support.

[Political Junkie Too]

"Those comments," he wrote, "were predicated on certain facts that we did not know (and could not have known) at the time of our decision and of which I was not fully aware until your talk — namely, that the city's development plan had never materialized and, as a result, years later, the land at issue remains barren and wholly undeveloped." He later added that he could not know of those facts "because they were not yet in existence."

This is exactly what was wrong with the Kelo decision.

The Justice says "he could not know of those facts 'because they were not yet in existence.'" I would argue that those weren't "facts," they were speculation, precisely because they hadn't occured yet.

What the justices did with Kelo was take a certainty in the property taxes owed by current property owners and trade it for the speculation of future higher property taxes promised by new property owners, and then call this a "public good" as a subset of "public use," the actual phrase from the Fifth Amendment.

The Justices might as well have rolled the dice and call it Constitutional.

-PJ

[rmlew]

In other words, this POS kritocrat just admitted that the Stat Constitution was less relevant than the narrative.

[Daffynition]

The Palmer comment is like spitting into the wind.

Instead of using a crystal ball, in the case, maybe, just maybe if they followed the Constitution, Kelo and her neighbors wouldn’t have been so screwed.

[Daffynition]

Sadly, the land was used recently as a dump after tropical storm Irene. Talk about adding insult to injury.

[Daffynition]

The NLDC is some quasi-public group of developers using funds, loosey-goosey. They, and it’s head the sleezey Michael Joplin, are the ones that should be taking the heat for this travesty.Joplin and the NLDC had the power to undertake acquisitions for redevelopment where the taking agency transfers title to the property taken to a designated developer for redevelopment with a project which benefits the private developer, and indirectly the city, with new tax revenues and construction.

I have my doubts if this movie will give all the facts accurately. Wonder who will play Michael Joplin? .... it would have to be the sleaziest , dirtiest character actor you could cast.

[Hiddigeigei]

I’m not saying that the building of the railroads was a bad thing.
But a corrupt congress took land that had already been settled and gave it to the railroad companies (private enterprises just like Pfizer drugs); railroads that were largely financed by British capitalists. Corrupt congressmen got paid off, and the settlers got shafted. There are letters to congressmen in the Library of Congress voicing the settlers complaints.