Supreme Court Says Private Property May Be Seized

NEW LONDON, CT-In a 17-page decision, the US Supreme Court has ruled that a local government has the right to use its eminent domain powers to seize private property to transfer it to another private entity. In Kelo v. the City of New London, seven plaintiffs including homeowner Susette Kelo and other property and small business owners, filed suit in December 2000 after New London officials and the New London Development Corp. condemned their Fort Trumbull properties so a number of private development projects could move forward. City officials maintained the projects would bring a great economic benefit to the area.

“The city has carefully formulated an economic development that it believes will provide appreciable benefits to the community,” Justice John Paul Stevens wrote in an opinion joined by Justices Anthony Kennedy, David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer. “Promoting economic development is a traditional and long accepted function of government.”

In the dissent, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote, “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.” She was joined in the dissent by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.