The Institute for Justice (IJ) is a libertarian non-profit public interest law firm in the United States. It has litigated ten cases before the United States Supreme Court dealing with eminent domain, interstate commerce, public financing for elections, school vouchers, tax credits for private school tuition, civil asset forfeiture, and residency requirements for liquor license. The organization was founded in 1990. As of June 2016, it employed a staff of 95 in Arlington, Virginia and seven offices across the United States. Its 2016 budget was $20 million.
The Connecticut Supreme Court, formerly known as the Connecticut Supreme Court of Errors, is the highest court in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It consists of a Chief Justice and six Associate Justices. The seven justices sit in Hartford, across the street from the Connecticut State Capitol. The court generally holds eight sessions of two to three weeks per year, with one session each September through November and January through May. Justices are appointed by the governor and then approved by the Connecticut General Assembly.
Berman v. Parker, 348 U.S. 26 (1954), is a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that interpreted the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Court voted 8–0 to hold that private property could be taken for a public purpose with just compensation. The case laid the foundation for the Court's later important public use cases, Hawaii Housing Authority v. Midkiff, 467 U.S. 229 (1984) and Kelo v. City of New London, 545 U.S. 469 (2005).
Kelo v. City of New London, 545 U.S. 469 (2005), was a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the United States in which the Court held, 5–4, that the use of eminent domain to transfer land from one private owner to another private owner to further economic development does not violate the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment. In the case, plaintiff Susette Kelo sued the city of New London, Connecticut, for violating her civil rights after the city tried to acquire her house's property through eminent domain so that the land could be used as part of a "comprehensive redevelopment plan". Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the five-justice majority that the city's use of eminent domain was permissible under the Takings Clause, because the general benefits the community would enjoy from economic growth qualified as "public use".
Hawaii Housing Authority v. Midkiff, 467 U.S. 229 (1984), was a case in which the United States Supreme Court held that a state could use eminent domain to take land that was overwhelmingly concentrated in the hands of private landowners and redistribute it to the wider population of private residents.
The Lost Liberty Hotel or Lost Liberty Inn was a proposed hotel to be built on the site of United States Supreme Court Associate Justice David Souter's properties in Weare, New Hampshire. The proposal was a reaction to the Supreme Court’s Kelo v. New London (2005) decision in which Souter joined the majority ruling that the U.S. Constitution allows the use of eminent domain to condemn privately owned real property for use in private economic development projects.
Constitution Park was a 2005 proposal to pursue eminent domain against the Plainfield, New Hampshire vacation estate of Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, in order to construct a park commemorating the US and New Hampshire Constitutions and providing an interpretive center and lodging for visitors. It came in response to the Supreme Court decision in Kelo v. City of New London.
Joette Katz is an American attorney who is a partner at the law firm, Shipman & Goodwin LLP. She was an associate justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court, where she also served as the administrative judge for the state appellate system, and as Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Children and Families. In various roles during her career she has had an impact on issues of state and national importance, such as: criminal law, capital punishment, civil rights and the right to education, eminent domain, same-sex marriage, LGBTQ rights, sexual assault, sex trafficking, and helping children in state care move from institutions to families.
City of Norwood v. Horney, 110 Ohio St.3d 353 (2006), was a case brought before the Ohio Supreme Court in 2006. The case came upon the heels of Kelo v. City of New London, in which the United States Supreme Court ruled that commercial development justified the use of eminent domain. Kelo had involved the United States Constitution, while the issue in Norwood was the specific limitations of the Ohio State Constitution.
The Castle Coalition is a network of U.S. homeowners and citizen activists determined to stop the abuse of eminent domain in their communities, that is, the taking of private property by the government in order to give it to another private individual. The organization takes its name from the principle that Americans' homes or businesses should be their castles, that is, places where they are safe and free from abusive government power. The principle has been part of Anglo-American legal tradition since Edward Coke famously stated, "... a man's house is his castle".
Vera Coking is a retired homeowner whose Atlantic City, New Jersey, boarding house was the focus of an eminent domain case involving Donald Trump.
Scott G. Bullock is an American lawyer who focuses on property rights issues such as eminent domain and civil forfeiture. He has been President and General Counsel at the Institute for Justice since 2016, a nonprofit libertarian public interest law firm. He represented Susette Kelo in Kelo v. City of New London, an eminent domain case decided by the Supreme Court in 2005. Bullock was a senior attorney before becoming the president of the institute and directed many cases on state and federal level. In 1994 he represented the institute in a forum on C-SPAN.
Flemming L. Norcott Jr. is a former Associate Justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court. He was appointed to the Connecticut Superior Court in 1979 and remained there until his elevation to the Connecticut Appellate Court in 1987. He was appointed to the Connecticut Supreme Court in 1992. He also serves as Associate Fellow of Calhoun College at Yale University, as well as a lecturer. Justice Norcott received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia University in 1965 and a Juris Doctor degree from Columbia Law School in 1968. He was born in New Haven, Connecticut.
Cole v. City of La Grange, 113 U.S. 1 (1885), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the court ruled on eminent domain to benefit a private corporation.
Public use is a legal requirement under the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, that owners of property seized by eminent domain for "public use" be paid "just compensation."
Robert P. Young Jr. is a former justice of the Michigan Supreme Court. Young was first appointed to the Michigan Supreme Court in 1999, elected in 2000 and 2002, and again won reelection in 2010 for a term ending in 2019. Justice Young announced he would be retiring from the court at the end of April 2017. Young is a self-described judicial traditionalist or textualist. In June 2017, Young announced his intentions to run against Debbie Stabenow in the 2018 senate race, but later dropped out saying he could not raise enough money for his campaign.
Ilya Somin is a law professor at George Mason University, B. Kenneth Simon Chair in Constitutional Studies at the Cato Institute, a blogger for the Volokh Conspiracy, and a former co-editor of the Supreme Court Economic Review (2006–2013). His research focuses on constitutional law, property law, migration rights, and the study of popular political participation and its implications for constitutional democracy.
Eminent domain in the United States refers to the power of a state or the federal government to take private property for public use while requiring just compensation to be given to the original owner. It can be legislatively delegated by the state to municipalities, government subdivisions, or even to private persons or corporations, when they are authorized to exercise the functions of public character.
Daniel Kelly is an American attorney and former judge who served as a Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice from August 1, 2016, through August 1, 2020. He was appointed by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker in 2016 to fill the unexpired term of Justice David Prosser, but lost re-election for a full term in 2020 to Jill Karofsky. He has faced criticism for repeatedly choosing to represent pedophiles in private practice. In the weeks following the 2020 Presidential Election, he provided legal counsel to the Wisconsin GOP as part of its "fake elector" scheme to overturn the 2020 Election. He is a nominee for the 2023 Wisconsin Supreme Court election on April 4th, 2023.
Little Pink House is a 2017 American-Canadian biographical drama film written and directed by Courtney Moorehead Balaker and starring Catherine Keener as Susette Kelo. It is based on the book "Little Pink House" by Jeff Benedict, which chronicles events related to Kelo v. City of New London, a U.S. Supreme Court case in which Kelo unsuccessfully sued the city of New London, Connecticut, for its controversial use of eminent domain.
