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Eminent domain ruling ‘disastrous’

(Bowling Green, Kentucky) – A ruling handed down today by the Supreme Court paves the way for local governments to seize private property and hand it over to developers and other businesses. In a 5-4 decision, the court ruled that the possibility of increased tax revenues justifies the use of eminent domain to snatch homes so that businesses can make more money off that land.

While eminent domain may be necessary to build public projects such as roads and bridges, this decision will allow private homes to be taken to build shopping malls, hotels and theaters.

The Bluegrass Institute joins many voices across the nation who decry and lament this irrational edict.

“The Court simply got the law wrong today, and our Constitution and country will suffer as a result,” said Scott Bullock, a senior attorney for the Institute for Justice, which represented home owners in the case. “With today’s ruling, the poor and middle class will be most vulnerable to eminent domain abuse by government and its corporate allies.”

Kentucky is one of only eight states that forbids the use of eminent domain except for the purposes of eliminating “blight,” the definition of which has often been stretched so far as to become meaningless. It certainly has not helped residents of Northern Kentucky where more than 100 homes in the Cote Brilliante neighborhood were declared “blighted” so that eminent domain could be used and a retail-office complex built.

Most Supreme Court decisions actually affect a small number of people. Today’s ruling, however, threatens the property rights of every American since most Kentuckians’ homes, small businesses and churches would produce more tax revenue as shopping centers or office buildings.

The court’s ruling also means that this important battle over property rights will now be fought in the states.

“We call on Kentucky policymakers and judges to side with private property owners and against the unlawful and unethical taking of land for the benefit of private developers,” said Chris Derry, president of the Bluegrass Institute, Kentucky’s free-market think tank. “Let’s hope that Kentucky courts display more respect for property owners than the Supreme Court did in today’s disastrous decision.”

For interview information, contact Jim Waters, Director of Policy and Communications for the Bluegrass Institute. He can be reached at (270) 782-2140 or jwaters@bipps.org.

The Bluegrass Institute is an independent research and educational institution offering free-market solutions to Kentucky's most pressing problems.

Permission to reprint Perspective commentaries, in whole or in part, is hereby granted, provided the author and his affiliations are cited. Authors are available for interviews by contacting the Institute.

Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions
400 East Main Avenue, Bowling Green, KY 42101

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