Columbia University and Eminent Domain

   

Columbia University Uses Eminent Domain To Grab Two Properties:  Law Professor Glenn Reynolds isn't happy about that.  (Neither am I.)

This was demonstrated again this week, as the last legal barrier (a possible US Supreme Court review) to Columbia University's efforts to condemn and seize two businesses -- Tuck-it-Away Self-Storage and a gas station owned by Gurnam Singh and Parminder Kaur in West Harlem -- vanished.
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Traditionally, the "public-domain" power was used to acquire property needed for things like roads and bridges.  It's still often defended in those terms, but the "public use" required for such takings has now been interpreted by courts to include pretty much anything the government wants to do with the property -- including handing it over to someone else who just happens to be wealthier or better-connected than the original property holder.

Reynolds is right to condemn this action, and right to say that people with little money or power are often victimized by these actions.

But Reynolds goes a little too far when he claims that the wealthy and powerful are never victimized by this kind of abuse of government power.  Sometimes they are — especially if they backed the wrong candidate in the last election.  For example, Rupert Murdoch — who does not lack for money or power — was forced to give up the New York Post for some years, thanks to a provision inserted in the law by Ted Kennedy.  Anyone familiar with the Kennedy family history can think of other examples that fit this pattern.

- 10:51 AM, 17 December 2010   [link]