Citizens' Advocates Fight Eminent Domain on Multiple Fronts
by Ed Thomas
August 18, 2005
(AgapePress) - A group of activists nationwide who have been fighting eminent domain abuse for several years have joined in with an effort to help Connecticut landowners fight the Kelo v. New London Supreme Court decision, which gave the federal government a green light to take an individual citizen's home or business and give it to a private developer. Stephen Anderson is the coordinator of the Castle Coalition, a national grassroots organization that has recently stepped up its already long-running battle against eminent domain abuses. Along with Washington's Institute for Justice, the Castle Coalition has filed a petition for a rehearing of Kelo v. New London, a decision both groups feel puts the individual rights of American citizens at risk.
"The main danger in Kelo is that literally everyone's property is up for grabs," Anderson explains. "The Supreme Court of the United States said that the federal constitution provides no protection for property owners if a developer and a government get together and decide that your land can be better used as something else."
The Coalition has taken other action besides the petition for a review of what the grassroots group calls the "dreadful ruling" issued in the now infamous eminent domain case. "In the wake of the Kelo decision," Anderson says, "we did launch a new $3 million campaign called 'Hands Off My Home,' which is a more aggressive approach to change, both through litigation and legislative reform at the state and local levels."
That aggressive approach is necessary, the activist group's coordinator says, because of the implications of the Kelo ruling, which many critics believe has emboldened the efforts of developers across the country to seize property under the rubric of this eminent domain precedent. According to the Supreme Court's finding, homes and small businesses, churches and open pieces of land can now be taken by the government and handed over to private developers for their private gain, and the Constitution offers the original owners no course of redress.
Anderson says this means "little, working-class folks, minorities, the elderly," and other private citizens without considerable means to combat land-hungry developers and tax-hungry governments "are all disproportionately affected by the abuse of imminent domain." He explains that eminent domain affects "those people that are not politically connected and don't have the financial resources to protect themselves."
Grassroots Tell Land-Grabby Governments and Developers, 'Hands Off!'
One of the main reasons why the Castle Coalition exists, Anderson says, is because fighting the combined forces of developers and governments through litigation is "very expensive." The group's website tracks state and national legislative efforts against eminent domain and offers practical help in fighting it with model local legislation.
Also, as part of the Castle Coalition's Hands Off My Home campaign, the Institute for Justice hosted a Washington, DC, conference in July. The event was attended by some 40 activists and homeowners, who spent the time learning tactics of grassroots activism against eminent domain abuse and how to push for legislative and constitutional change in their states.
Another facet of the Hands Off My Home effort involves the joint effort of the Institute for Justice and the Castle Coalition to urge state governors, state legislators and municipal officials to sign a formal pledge promising to oppose efforts in their state to use the government power of eminent domain for private development. The government leaders are also being asked to support action and legislation designed to ensure that their citizens are safe from private developers' eminent domain land-grab attempts.
Ed Thomas, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
