Real Estate & Property Law

James Ely: Report Card On Post-Kelo Eminent Domain Reforms

By Robert Thomas (inversecondemnation.com)

Professor James Ely (who, among other things, is the author of The Guardian of Every Other Right: A Constitutional History of Property Rights) writes "A Report Card on Post-Kelo Eminent Domain Reforms" at the Oxford University Press blog.  He notes the "decidedly mixed" legislative reactions to Kelo, and how many apparent reforms have left loopholes. He also notes:

Although the state legislative response to Kelo has been decidedly mixed, several state supreme courts have struck down the exercise of eminent domain for economic development purposes by private parties. For example, the Ohio and Oklahoma supreme courts have specifically rejected the reasoning in Kelo and construed their own state constitutions to afford greater protection of property owners against eminent domain.

He concludes that with a reintroduction of property rights to the public that efforts at reform "may ultimately bear more fruit."

Full post as published by inversecondemnation on March 24, 2009 (boomark / email).