The Kelo decision is one of the great travesties of jurisprudence, along with abortion and gay marriage.
Property rights are a cornerstone to our existence as Americans. While the Constitution does recognize need for eminent domain, it says absolutely nothing about taking property from one citizen and giving it to another. The ability of one party to pay higher taxes than another should not be the basis of property law in this country.
Let’s not forget the Bush (43) administration wrote a “friend of the court appeal” siding with the court’s ruling on Kelo vs NLC.
Eminent Domain is extremely limited in its legitimacy and is never legitimate when taken from one private entity and given to another private entity.
There are legitimate uses for eminent domain but they are pretty rare these days. In the case of the new bridge over the Detroit river, average property values in the Delray neighborhood shot up from around $5 grand to over $30 grand practically overnight in anticipation of the land being taken.