A Stitch in Haste

Two stories of fairly flagrant abuse of eminent domain recently.

First, Dallas is in eminent domain overdrive to put together a site for a new stadium for the Dallas Cowboys. The city is facing some "holdouts." Nothing new there -- holdouts are a common problem in development projects, and the recent Kelo case was not about holdouts at all, but rather about whether certain projects as a whole were permissible public uses. (The fact that sports stadiums are not a public good is a topic for a whole other chain. Furthermore, the fact that the Dallas Cowboys already have a stadium site is also conveniently overlooked.)

No, what's "intriguing" (to put it nicely) about Dallas' program is just how many "holdouts" there are:

The City Council has condemned or sought to condemn more than three-quarters of the properties it has acted on in the past four months, an analysis has found.
...
Glenn Sodd, an attorney representing some people in the affected area, said the high percentage of eminent domain cases shows that the city has low-balled residents and business owners and that its incentive program is inadequate.

It seems to me that if the overwhelming majority of property owners are "holdouts," then that creates a presumption that the city is not offering "just compensation" as required by the Constitution.

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Meanwhile, a town in Palm Beach County, Florida, is planning one of the largest eminent domain proceedings in American history:

Florida's Riviera Beach is a poor, predominantly black, coastal community that intends to revitalize its economy by using eminent domain, if necessary, to displace about 6,000 local residents and build a billion-dollar waterfront yachting and housing complex.
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[Mayor Michael] Brown said Riviera Beach is doing what the city of New London, Conn., is trying to do and what the U.S. Supreme Court said is proper in its ruling June 23 in Kelo v. City of New London.
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"More than 2,000 homes could be eligible for confiscation," said H. Adams Weaver, a local lawyer who is assisting protesting homeowners.

Can 6,000 people be collectively classified as "holdouts"? Did Kelo anticipate the effective razing of an entire town as "economic development"? Is a yacht club a "public good" or even a "public use"?

Kelo effectively rendered the "public use" requirement of the Fifth Amendment's Takings Clause a nullity. There's no reason to think that the "just compensation" requirement will survive Kelo-inspired eminent domain expansionism either.

Expect more headlines like those from Dallas and Riviera Beach in the future.