{"id":31453,"date":"2015-05-26T04:00:38","date_gmt":"2015-05-26T08:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=31453"},"modified":"2015-05-24T11:51:33","modified_gmt":"2015-05-24T15:51:33","slug":"ilya-somins-new-book-on-eminent-domain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2015\/05\/26\/ilya-somins-new-book-on-eminent-domain\/","title":{"rendered":"Ilya Somin&#8217;s new book on eminent domain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The book is being published in time to mark the tenth anniversary of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/volokh-conspiracy\/wp\/2015\/05\/20\/my-new-book-the-grasping-hand-kelo-v-city-of-new-london-and-the-limits-of-eminent-domain\/\" target=\"_blank\">Supreme Court&#8217;s dreadful <em>Kelo<\/em> decision<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>My new book, <em>The Grasping Hand: Kelo v. City of New London and the Limits of Eminent Domain<\/em> is now in print. It is the first book about <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oyez.org\/cases\/2000-2009\/2004\/2004_04_108\" target=\"_blank\">the <em>Kelo<\/em> decision<\/a> and the massive political backlash it generated, written by a legal scholar. <em>The Grasping Hand<\/em> is coming out just in time for the tenth anniversary of <em>Kelo<\/em> on June 23. <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Kelo-Book-Cover-Final-Version-e1432095413354.jpg\"  style=\"float:right; padding: 0px 0px 0px 10px\" alt=\"Kelo-Book-Cover-Final-Version-e1432095413354\" width=\"300\" height=\"450\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-31454\" srcset=\"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Kelo-Book-Cover-Final-Version-e1432095413354.jpg 300w, https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Kelo-Book-Cover-Final-Version-e1432095413354-100x150.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Here is a summary from the University of Chicago Press website (the book is also co-published by the Cato Institute):<\/p>\n<ul>\n<p><em>In 2005, the Supreme Court ruled that the city of New London, Connecticut, could condemn fifteen residential properties in order to transfer them to a new private owner. Although the Fifth Amendment only permits the taking of private property for \u201cpublic use,\u201d the Court ruled that the transfer of condemned land to private parties for \u201ceconomic development\u201d is permitted by the Constitution \u2013 even if the government cannot prove that the expected development will ever actually happen. The Court\u2019s decision in <strong>Kelo v. City of New London<\/strong> empowered the grasping hand of the state at the expense of the invisible hand of the market.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>In this detailed study of one of the most controversial Supreme Court cases in modern times, Ilya Somin argues that <strong>Kelo<\/strong> was a grave error. Economic development and \u201cblight\u201d condemnations are unconstitutional under both originalist and most \u201cliving constitution\u201d theories of legal interpretation. They also victimize the poor and the politically weak for the benefit of powerful interest groups, and often destroy more economic value than they create. <strong>Kelo<\/strong> itself exemplifies these patterns. The residents targeted for condemnation lacked the influence needed to combat the formidable government and corporate interests arrayed against them. Moreover, the city\u2019s poorly conceived development plan ultimately failed: the condemned land lies empty to this day, occupied only by feral cats.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The Supreme Court\u2019s unpopular ruling triggered an unprecedented political reaction, with forty-five states passing new laws intended to limit the use of eminent domain. But many of the new laws impose few or no genuine constraints on takings. The <strong>Kelo<\/strong> backlash led to significant progress, but not nearly as much as it may have seemed.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Despite its outcome, the closely divided 5-4 ruling shattered what many believed to be a consensus that virtually any condemnation qualifies as a public use under the Fifth Amendment. It also showed that there is widespread public opposition to eminent domain abuse. With controversy over takings sure to continue, The Grasping Hand offers the first book-length analysis of <strong>Kelo<\/strong> by a legal scholar, alongside a broader history of the dispute over public use and eminent domain, and an evaluation of options for reform.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The book is being published in time to mark the tenth anniversary of the Supreme Court&#8217;s dreadful Kelo decision: My new book, The Grasping Hand: Kelo v. City of New London and the Limits of Eminent Domain is now in print. It is the first book about the Kelo decision and the massive political backlash [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,9,10,13],"tags":[715,501,267,752],"class_list":["post-31453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-law","category-liberty","category-usa","tag-constitution","tag-eminentdomain","tag-justice","tag-supremecourt"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-8bj","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31453"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31456,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31453\/revisions\/31456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}