This article was originally published in WND.com
Guest post by Bob Unruh
But Supreme Court charges eminent domain case is a pretext
The Long Island town of Southold has sparked a fight over its decision to seize private property purchased by the owner of a chain of hardware stores for a new location.
The problem is that the town used eminent domain to take the land against the wishes of the landowners, but had no legitimate reason to do so.
The reason for this, according to Institute of Justice officials, is that the city insisted the land was needed for a “park,” but the result was a “passive park” with no cleanup, no improvements, and just an old house of remains.
IJ explains: “When all legal efforts to prevent someone from using their property have failed, can the government simply use eminent domain to seize land? Here’s a new petition filed by a family-owned hardware store business with the U.S. Supreme Court At the heart of the matter was the business’s property being expropriated by a Long Island town.
Members of the Brinkman family already own five stores on Long Island and acquired another in Southold.
“The town went to great lengths to stop construction. It tried to interfere with the Brinkmans’ land purchase, but failed to evict the Brinkmans, then charged exorbitant fees for a market impact study, which the town received after payment The study was never conducted and a building permit moratorium was selectively imposed to stifle the Brinkmanns’ permit application; the town voted to acquire the land as a park through eminent domain,” IJ said.
On the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, the justices said, “The government can seize your property for almost any reason, including because it doesn’t like you, as long as the government lies about why it’s using eminent domain,” explained IJ attorney Jeff Redfern .
“This is a dangerous precedent, and the Supreme Court should take this opportunity to clarify that the malicious use of eminent domain solely to prevent someone from lawful use of their property is unconstitutional.”
The commercial enterprise was founded by Tony and Pat Brinkmann in 1976 with a single store in Sevier, New York. Run by their children Mary, Ben and Hank.
“If the practices used by Southold to seize our property are allowed to continue, then no one can purchase property with confidence that they will be able to use it,” said Ben Brinkmann. “We comply rules, but the ground beneath our feet keeps changing until our property is taken away by force. Eminent domain abuses should not be ignored by the courts.
The dissent to the recent 2nd Circuit ruling noted that “courts across the country have a long history of invalidating bad-faith takings to prevent the lawful use of property.”
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