ABSTRACT
The brief facts in the Kelo case was that the city of New London, Connecticut, wanted to purchase a number of privately owned tracts of land, aggregate them, and sell them to private developers to redevelop the land to increase its value, "revitalize an economically distressed city”, and thereby to increase the city's property tax base. The chapter considers why the weakening of private property rights through the use of eminent domain poses a threat to both individual liberty and to the private property foundations of a prosperous market economy. The Supreme Court's decision in the Kelo case created an immediate backlash. Prompted by citizen outrage, within six weeks of the Kelo decision bills were introduced in more than half of the state legislatures and in the US Congress to restrict the use of eminent domain for private development.
