Yesterday, the late Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens’ papers from the start of his career through 2005 were made public by the Library of Congress (see here for the official guide to this archive). One of the cases decided in 2005 was Kelo v. City of New London, the hugely controversial Takings Clause property rights decision in which Stevens wrote the majority opinion for a closely divided 5-4 Court. The Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment says the government only take private property for a “public use.” In Kelo, a narrow 5-4 Supreme Court majority ruled that almost any potential public benefit qualifies as “public use,” thereby permitting the City of New London to take fifteen residential properties for purposes of transfer to a new private owner in order to increase “economic development.” The ruling had a big impact on debates over takings law (both in the United States and around the world), and generated a massive political reaction. Over 80% of the public opposed the decision, and 45 states passed new eminent domain reform laws.
It turns out that the Stevens papers contain four large folders of material about Kelo! Within the next 24 hours, copies of these files will be in my possession, and I hope they will shed light on a number of unanswered questions…
More information can be found here
