Since I was a kid I have pondered the issue of eminent domain. This is when the government takes private property for the public betterment. I thought this power was reserved for building roads or schools, hospitals or some other public use. However, it appears that sometimes private property is taken away from a private individual only to be used for some other private use in the name of “the greater good”.
I just finished reading “Little Pink House” by Jeff Benedict that details the events leading up to the landmark United States Supreme Court case of Kelo v. City of New London. It is an excellent book and I really like Benedict’s writing style. I am amazed at the people who agreed to be interviewed for the book.
I must admit that I had heard of the case and didn’t want to read about it because I disagreed with the 5-4 US Supreme Court decision to allow the city of New London to take away Susette Kelo’s and others houses for an urban development project. However, the ending of the book is comfortably satisfying.
One thing that still puzzles me is the split of the supreme court. The judges that are considered liberal (Kennedy, Souter, Ginsburg, and Stevens) are on the wrong side of this argument as far as I am concerned. They sided with the City of New London that the homeowners should be evicted. I would think that they would be on the side of the “common person”. The judges who are considered conservative (Rehnquist, Scalia, and Thomas) all sided with the homeowners against giving the land to a private company for development. Normally I would think that these judges would be on the side of private industry. Go figure.
