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Originally Posted by Mr Biglesworth
Wow, sounds absolutely surreal. What was the basis of the majority opinion asides from the flimsy 'it will indirectly help the community, somehow', other than that they're deranged liberals?
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They were deranged liberals.
Oh ... wait...
Well, the swing vote was a conservative (Souter, of whom everybody is pissed) ... I haven't read his opinion yet because it takes a little while for all of them to get posted, where as the majority opinion is usually up on the internet the day after the decision is read.
For some brief history,
The 5th Amendment of the Constitution, hand-in-hand with the 14th, carries "the Takings clause" for Government seizure of property, with just compensation, as long as the seizing has a public use... Typically, this is applied to roads, rebeautification (a smut shop in the Commons of my town was bought out by the state per rebeuatification), and other government facilities that service the public. The just compensation is often a number far lower than the market-value of a house, often half as much of what a property would go for on the market, as its just what your property is appraised at by state and federal tax appraisers.
New London was declared a "distressed municipality" in the 1990s, especially after one of the larger Navy bases in the US, the Navy Undersea Warfare Center, was forced to close after military spending was cut in the mid 1990s. So, the 2000 or so people who worked and lived in the barraks, which is roughly 10% of the population was left without jobs... many of them moving to the neighboring town of Norwich or Groton, to be relocated at the Groton Navy Sub-base or a larger Nuclear energy facility just north of Norwich. So, while the local economy of surrounding towns was experience periods of growth, New London, especially in the area where the Navy base was located (known as the Fort Trumball area, named after some fort from a hundred years ago) was experiencing steady decline. So, in 1999, the powers that be decided that something had to be done. Just up the Thames river--an salt-water river that empties into the Long Island Sound--closer to Groton, Pfizer corp. opened their largest facility East of the Mississippi after the erecting success of Viagra. Pfizer expressed interest in opening a large gym, housing area, and recreational facility for Pfizer employees near the Groton facility. New London and the State of Connecticut was interested in replacing a section of town that was largely decaying, from the exodus from the city (which became a municipality due to population decline) to surrounding towns and cities. Many of the properties in the Fort Trumball area, though, were multi-century houses and properties owned by some of the original families who settled the area shortly after (James?) Hudson explored the Eastern seaboard, the Hudson river, and the Long Island Sound (and where he died in the Hudson bay, up in Der Canada).
So, you have some very expensive, very old properties intermingled with a rapidly declining community. The Connecticut real estate market has also grown considerably since the late-1980s with steady interest rates. Though still lower than most Massachusetts towns, the growing number of Connecticut-to-Boston commuters (only about an hour of easy highway driving) has driven real estate up in the last 10 years especially (especially with the financing/refinancing boom of the late 90s that has continued into today). The leading petitioner, Susette Kelo, bought her waterfront property on the Thames River in 1997, making considerable renovations and atleast doubling the property value. Most of the other petitioners have lived their for an average of over 25 years... one woman in the house that she was born in in 1917. These are their largest investments .. and when you're aging, you know that if you sell your house, you'll easily be several hundred thousand dollars richer. So these 15 or so petitioners were removed from their property, their property condemned (the term used when the state forces people off of their property).
-- NEWS BREAK -- (Justice) SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR JUST ANNOUNCED HER RETIREMENT
I gotta make the rounds at the regular political nonsense forums, I'll be back.