Abstract
The concept of eminent domain is a legal term that denotes the right of the government to use private property for the public interest by justifying the application of that property while compensating its value. The proposed court hearing is based on the controversy over New London residents’ dissatisfaction with the authorities’ decision to use private property and transfer it to private developers as intermediaries (Kelo v. New London, 2005). The reasons of both parties need to be taken into account to pass a verdict on the legality of the court’s decision to withdraw private property and transfer it to public use.
Interpretation of the Court’s Decision
The government’s right to seize private property and compensate its owners for its value is one of those controversial conditions of government regulation that sometimes arise at different levels. In accordance with the case in question, the city authorities decided to use appropriate infrastructure to transfer it to private developers for the optimization of different areas (Kelo v. New London, 2005). In particular, expanding the potential of the labor market and improving fiscal policy were proposed as the ultimate goals of this legal procedure (Kelo v. New London, 2005). Citizens’ discontent boiled down to the fact that, in accordance with the Fifth Amendment, the right to compulsory property seizure was inadmissible. From the perspective of the case under consideration, the court’s decision was not objective and illogical.
One of the key justifications for the illegality of the court decision in favor of the authorities was the inalienable right of any citizen to dispose of private property at one’s discretion. According to Reis (2019), in modern practice, such decisions are not uncommon since infrastructure and urban development are objective reasons to put the eminent domain concept into practice. Nevertheless, without owners’ consent, even in the case of an officially recognized development plan, the compulsory seizure of property could be equated with illegal theft.
One of the main arguments was the testimony of the defendant that formally, private developers to whom the property was planned to transfer would not be the owners and were supposed to act as intermediaries. However, for real owners, this made no difference whether developers became third parties or not since their property would still change hands. Therefore, even despite the optimization plan, the decision to justify the city authorities in their attempt to improve economic sectors was illegitimate and could be interpreted as a forced seizure of property.
Personal Voting Decision
Regarding my decision as a potential tenth judge, I would vote in favor of the plaintiff and reject the authorities’ arguments. The inalienable right of every citizen to the inviolability of property is regulated by the Constitution. By following the principles of the New London authorities, any resident can lose this right anytime. Even good goals in the form of optimizing the economy are not objective reasons to seize property belonging to a particular person. Otherwise, this may be regarded as an act of theft by the government.
References
Kelo v. New London, 545 U.S. 469 (2005). Web.
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Reis, W. (2019). Eminent domain and land disposition: Urban renewal in upstate New York [Unpublished master’s thesis]. Columbia University.