I believe it is an historical truism that governments can be generally stable despite a wide variety of errors. BUT when the government starts taking the land that people own, then the government sows seeds of destruction.
And this is exactly why eminant domain is not protected by letting "elected officials" decide if it is for a "public purpose" instead of being held to the higher standard of "public use".
Segal needs to maintain a lawsuit all the way to what hopefully will be a new Supreme Court eminant domain case.
Was that the NewsMax version labeling all the corrupt politicians Democrats? I can't believe the (Red)Star Ledger would do that!
That is exactly why NJ is the home state of the Sopranos.
This sounds more like an episode of "The Sopranos" and not a real case. Ah, life imitates art...
The 'peasents with pitchforks' should show up on the doorsteps of the Supreme Court someday and drag the these clowns out so they can be beaten repeatedly and vigorously about the head and shoulders with blunt objects for the this ruling.
The ink isn't even dry on the Kelo decision and the abuse of power has begun.
This is even a worse case of eminent domain abuse. Both the municipality and the owner of the land want the proerty developed in the exact same manner. The only difference is that the municipality wants a local, politically connected firm to do the work instead of letting the local owner control the development. This is local politics at its worst. I just don't see how there can be a public use excuse, even for additional taxes, being an issue since the net benefit to the municipality is the same. Unless they want to press the issue that it is of greater economic impact if the local company does the development. If that is the case, the SCOTUS ruling has now dictated that municipalities can decide WHO develops the land and can use eminent domain, not just to take property for the purpose of enhancing tax revenues, but to take property strictly for the financial benefit of the developer of their choosing. No one will ever have control of development unless they have the local governments in their back pockets. Otherwise, they lose their land.
OMG! This makes it sound like some of the politicians in NJ are CROOKS!
SCOTUS (mostly Republican nominees) rules against "we the people" in Kelo and our Republican POTUS utters not a sound on the matter.
And some on here think those of us currently unhappy with Bush are the problem...
All the other specifics about political connectivity between the developers, the board, the fund raising...all that stuff has been going on in every local municipality for decades. I mean, it's NJ for heaven's sake...what did you expect? Democracy? When did the Star-Ledger wake up? Last week?
NJ sucks, I hate being a resident of a communist/socialist/police/nanny state.
I know a guy who moved to a small town and opened a store, selling certain kinds of things needed by local ranchers. He was doing quite well, and his only competition was a similar store owned by a local man.
The town declared eminent domain and claimed the outsider's property, putting him out of business, ostensibly so that they could install some kind of road bypass. As far as I know the bypass was never put in. The guy who was put out of business found out that the other store was within a few months of going bankrupt until they once again became the only game in town.
This abuse of eminent domain has been going on for years. With the recent Supreme Court decision, crooked politicians know now that they can get away with anything.
The town still has to pay "just compensation" for the taking, which would be the market value of the property likely established by the Centex contract, if in fact that was a bona fide deal.
Actually, this is a pretty straight forward land grab by the town and Segal will likely make out just as well either way. Typically, the town would try to depress the land value by limiting use via insidious "ordinances", then try to pay the reduced land value as just compensation only AFTER the landowner brings a case for inverse condemnation. After that is over, the would then revote the ordinances in favor of the developer.
In my opinion, that's the sort of corruption to watch out for in light of the new SC ruling.
Third World is as Third World does.
ping
NJ has been pulling this type of stuff for years. Before the SCOTUS decision, they would condemn propterties to take them. Now they are just more brazen about it.
When that decision first came down I predicted that New Jersey, as the MOST corrupt state in America, would be the biggest and first abusers of people's property rights.
I'm sorry to be right.
Maybe Souter would be interested in the property.
I heard he is going to be in the market for a new home soon.
This is New Joisey at its best. Too bad there are so many decent people back there who have to put up with this kind of crap.
It's beyond insane to think someone won't do it eventually.