Timothy Sandefur of the Pacific Legal Foundation has a good post outlining the the dangers posed by a California ballot question drafted by local governments interested in expanding their already very broad power to condemn property: [J]ust before Christmas, the law firm of Rutan & Tucker—the leading California law firm for cities that want to […]
Archive | Post-Kelo Reform
Upcoming Federalist Society Faculty Conference Presentation on my Next Book – The Grasping Hand: Kelo v. City of New London and the Limits of Eminent Domain
By Ilya Somin on December 26, 2013 11:25 am in Eminent Domain, Kelo, Post-Kelo Reform, Property Rights
Next week, on Friday, January 3, between 5 and 6:15 PM, I will be doing a presentation on my next book, tentatively entitled The Grasping Hand: Kelo v. City of New London and the Limits of Eminent Domain at the Federalist Society’s annual faculty conference. This will be a preview of the book, which will […]
Philadelphia Condemns Artist’s Studio to Build a Supermarket and Parking Lot
Nick Sibilla of the Institute for Justice has a good article on the City of Philadelphia’s dubious efforts to condemn a successful artist’s studio in order to transfer it to a new private owner that would build a supermarket and parking lot on the site. This scheme isn’t quite paving paradise to put up a […]
New Jersey Adopts Dubious Post-Kelo Eminent Domain “Reform” Law that is Likely to Endanger Property Rights More than it Protects Them
New Jersey recently became the 45th state to adopt an eminent domain reform law in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s controversial 2005 decision in Kelo v. City of New London, which ruled that it was constitutionally permissible for government to condemn private property and give it to another private owner in order to promote […]
Eminent Domain and the Decline of Detroit
Detroit’s sixty year decline, culminating in its recent bankruptcy, has many causes. But one that should not be ignored is the city’s extensive use of eminent domain to transfer property to politically influential private interests. For many years, Detroit aggressively used eminent domain to promote “economic development” and “urban renewal.” The most notorious example was […]
The Case for Federal Eminent Domain Reform
By Ilya Somin on July 1, 2013 7:54 pm in Blight, Eminent Domain, Kelo, Post-Kelo Reform, Property Rights
Nick Sibilla of the Institute for Justice, the libertarian public interest firm that litigated Kelo v. City of New London and many other property rights cases, has a good op ed in Forbes on the need for reform measures to curb federal funding of abusive condemnations by state and local governments: Eight years ago, the […]
New Jersey Legislature Passes Ineffective Eminent Domain “Reform” Law
By Ilya Somin on June 23, 2013 11:45 am in Blight, Eminent Domain, Political Ignorance, Post-Kelo Reform, Property Rights
New Jersey is one of only six states that have not enacted an eminent domain reform law since the the Supreme Court’s controversial 2005 decision in Kelo v. City of New London, which ruled that state and local governments have the power to condemn private property and transfer it to other private interests in order […]
The Ongoing Saga of the Private Property Rights Protection Act
By Ilya Somin on June 17, 2013 1:10 pm in Democracy and Political Ignorance, Political Ignorance, Post-Kelo Reform, Property Rights
Last week, the House Judiciary Committee passed the Private Property Rights Protection Act, which would prevent local governments that engage in Kelo-style economic development takings from receiving federal economic development funds. As I explained in a post last year (which explains the bill in more detail), this legislation has been kicking around Congress since 2005. […]
Interesting Missouri Supreme Court Decision Interpreting the State’s Post-Kelo Eminent Domain Reform Law
The Supreme Court of Missouri recently issued Missouri Ex. Rel. Jackson v. Dolan, an important decision interpreting the state’s post-Kelo eminent domain reform law, which bans the use of eminent domain to condemn property for “solely economic development purposes.” As Robert Thomas points out at the Inverse Condemnation Blog, the ruling gives the statute more […]
Illinois Senate Passes Bill Authorizing the Use of Eminent Domain to Take Property for Casinos
The Institute for Justice, a leading libertarian public interest law firm that has litigated numerous property rights cases, reports that the Illinois state senate has passed a bill authorizing the use of eminent domain for the benefit of casinos: The bill passed 32-20 in the state Senate on May 1 and is now being considered […]
Don’t Believe the Denials – Alabama Really Did Undermine its Post-Kelo Eminent Domain Reform Law
Last week, I blogged about how the Alabama state legislature recently adopted a bill that undermines its post-Kelo eminent domain reform law and opens the door to the taking of private property for transfer to a wide range of politically connected private interests. Two state senators who sponsored the law have claimed that their bill […]
Alabama Undermines its Post-Kelo Eminent Domain Reform Law
By Ilya Somin on April 3, 2013 10:55 am in Blight, Eminent Domain, Kelo, Post-Kelo Reform, Property Rights
In the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s controversial 2005 decision in Kelo v. City of New London, which ruled that state and local governments could condemn property for transfer to private parties for “economic development,” 44 states passed eminent domain reform laws intended to curtail abusive condemnations. Many of the new laws only pretended to […]
How I Became a (Minor) Victim of Academic Plagiarism
Today, the Baltimore Sun published a detailed story about Towson University Professor Benjamin Neil, who has been accused of numerous instances of plagiarism, especially in a 2012 article on Kelo v. City of New London and post-Kelo eminent domain reform which has since been withdrawn by the Journal of Academic and Business Ethics: A longtime […]
University of Michigan Law School Talk on Property Rights Since Kelo
On Thursday, March 14, I will be giving a talk on “Property Rights Since Kelo” at the University of Michigan Law School. The event will run from 11:45 to about 12:50. I will cover both the legislative and judicial reactions to the Supreme Court’s controversial 2005 decision in Kelo v. City of New London, which […]
Talk on Kelo and Post-Kelo Eminent Domain Reform at South Texas College of Law
By Ilya Somin on January 14, 2013 6:23 pm in Eminent Domain, Kelo, Post-Kelo Reform, Property Rights
This Thursday at 5 PM, I will be speaking on Kelo v. City of New London and post-Kelo eminent domain reform at South Texas College of Law in Houston. The talk will be held in the Emile Slohm conference roomon the 6th Floor, and is sponsored by the South Texas Federalist Society. I will will […]