Eminent Domain Update and EPA Database Searches Via the Law Librarian
Even since the US Supreme Court decided Kelo V. New London, the eminent domain case which held that state government could in theory take private property in order to enable private development, the generally quiet field of eminent domain has been quite noisy. Many state legislatures have attempted to take action to clarify that that type of taking is not permissible in their state. Indiana’s own effort, HB 1010 - Eminent domain, made it through the legislative sausage mill this year.
The Law Librarian Blog has a post up today about to eminent domain cases in the post-Kelo scene: In the first, an octogenarian in Cincinnati lost her home of over 45 years to the City to permit roadwork related to an expansion of a private hospital, Good Samaritan. The woman’s son is also her lawyer and despite this past week’s ruling by a state court magistrate in favor of the city, he is vowing to continue his fight. The woman has already had to get a restraining order against city contractors after they cut into her house and put up a 8 foot sign in her front yard advertising the proposed relocation project. Link.
The second story is one I got a good chuckle out of when it first came out. Justice David Souter’s vote in the Kelo decision was seen as critical to the victory, so a Los Angeles businessman led an effort in Souter’s New Hampshire home town to seize Souter’s 200 year old homestead for private development (the “Lost Liberty Hotel” project)- fair justice in some people’s view. The effort led to a ballot measure, but this measure has failed. The point was made, though.
While your over at the Law Librarian site, be sure to browse around. It is an excellent research resource. For instance, yesterday it pointed to the EPA Enforcement & Compliance History Online. There you can run a search on a company or location, and get detailed information about environmental permit and enforcement actions. The results include detailed information about the companies and communities, and it even maps out the region, so you get a sense of what is happening in the area. Below is a map of my local community, showing impaired waters, permitted polluters and other details:
March 23rd, 2006 09:21
Thanks for the kinds words. — Joe Hodnicki, editor of Law Librarian Blog and co-founder of the Law Professor Blogs Network.
April 21st, 2006 14:03
Eminent Domain has far surpassed its original intent. No longer is private property just seized for road construction and public utilities. Local governments have lately been condemning private citizens from their property just for tax purposes and political or economic gain. Legal cases are springing up all over the nation in which local governments are taking property away from one private party and giving it to another private or corporate party. In one recent case , a township in Ohio is trying to remove one of its residents through the use of eminent domain. The city wants to level houses in the area to make way for new condominiums, which will bring in more taxes. One retired couple is putting up a legal fight against the township and the matter will go before the courts.
Lately however, the justice system has been in favor of eminent domain and its use to take property from one citizen, and give it to another. Most home owners would look at these acts as injustices against private property and individual rights protected by the constitution. Is there such a thing as private property in the US or does the government really own everything like in a communist society? Do you own your property or does the government? These are two questions that point straight at the heart of the eminent domain abuse issue.
for anti-eminent domain abuse t-shirts go to
http://www.thinkertees.com