I changed the date on this and moved it to the top so you can find it easier.
As you read the opinions in Kelo for Friday's class, ask yourself which opinion you find most persuasive, Justice Stevens' majority opinion, Justice O'Connor's dissent, or Justice Thomas' dissent.
Also think about this. We hear a lot these days about "judicial activism." Do you think Justice Stevens and the majority are acting as activists in Kelo? Is it activism when a court defers to the legislature? Is it activism to refuse to follow an express constitutional text designed to protect individual liberty? What is activism? Is it merely the way you describe the Court when it does something with which you disagree?
The opinion of the Supreme Court in Kelo is here.
Here is a recent NYT article that notes that:
They have still not moved out. Not Susette Kelo. Not the Derys. Not Byron Athenian or Bill Von Winkle or the others.
Five months after the United States Supreme Court set off a national debate by ruling that the City of New London could seize their property through eminent domain to make way for new private development, no one has been forced to leave.
No bulldozers have arrived to level the last houses still standing, and none are expected soon.
Even though the holdouts lost their case, and the development that would displace them finally seems free to go forward, construction has not begun, and some elements of the project have been effectively paralyzed since the court ruling prompted a political outcry.
The transcript of the oral argument in the case is here.
Here is a link to a recent NPR program on the post-Kelo flurry of legislation protecting property rights. Some say that this results in too much protection of private property rights (but can you really have too much of a good thing?).
Here is an article on Kelo by law prof Richard Epstein.
And here is an interview from Reasononline with Kelo's attorney Scott Bullock on what lies ahead for property rights in the wake of Kelo.
I am only assigning the opinion in the Kelo case. The other links are supplied for those who are interested in more depth.
