Final week, on June 23, was the twentieth anniversary of Kelo v. Metropolis of New London, maybe essentially the most controversial property rights choices within the historical past of the Supreme Courtroom. Though the Fifth Modification solely permits the taking of personal property for “public use,” the Courtroom dominated that the switch of condemned land to personal events for “financial improvement” is permitted by the Structure.
The Federalist Society organized a webinar on the event. The members have been Peter Byrne (Georgetown), Wesley Horton (counsel for New London within the case), Timothy Sandefur (Goldwater Institute), and myself. My George Mason College colleague Prof. Eric Claeys – a number one property legislation scholar – moderated. Peter Byrne and Wesley Horton are typically sympathetic to the consequence the Courtroom reached, whereas Tim Sandefur and I are against it. Beneath is the video of the occasion:
Final week, I additionally an article on the Brennan Heart State Courtroom Report web site asssessing the large state response to Kelo, which noticed 45 states enact eminent area reform legal guidelines, and several other state supreme courts repudiate Kelo as a information to the interpretation of their state constitutions’ public use clauses.
I even have a brand new article entitled “Public Use, Exclusionary Zoning, and Democracy,” out there at no cost obtain on SSRN. It’s a part of a forthcoming Yale Journal on Regulation symposium on the twentieth anniversary of the case.
The article builds partly on my e book about Kelo and its aftermath, The Greedy Hand, and likewise on my current article “The Constitutional Case In opposition to Exclusionary Zoning,” 103 Texas Regulation Assessment 1 (2024) (with Joshua Braver). It has already secured a much-coveted “extremely advisable” score on Prof. Larry Solum’s Authorized Principle Weblog.
