Last week saw a major victory for property rights, as besieged homeowners in New Jersey claimed victory against politicians and developers trying to seize their land. This continues the nationwide grassroots effort to stop government abuse of eminent domain power since the Supreme Court's misguided 2005 Kelo ruling.
This story began back in the mid 1990s, when the city of Long Branch marked the well-kept neighborhoods of a cottagy beach community "in need of redevelopment." Residents were told that their homes and property were "blighted" and were to be handed over to real-estate developers for a more than $100 million condo project. The families, represented by the Institute for Justice, protested but the confiscation was initially allowed to proceed by state judge Lawrence Lawson. In August 2008, a three-judge panel of the New Jersey Appellate Division unanimously reversed and remanded that decision, saying that the city did not have enough evidence to declare the area blighted. And last Tuesday the city of Long Branch agreed to drop their eminent domain claims.
This is big news in a state where eminent domain abuse has been rampant. While New Jersey law set a constitutional standard for blight, that standard had been weakened over the years by a legislature intent on pushing through development projects that would win friends or raise tax dollars. In 1992, a redevelopment law was passed that allowed government to seize properties if doing so could be somehow construed to improve the neighborhood.
Under that standard, as Sandra Day O'Connor wrote in her dissent in Kelo v. City of New London, any Motel 6 can be knocked down for a Ritz-Carlton. In the Long Branch case, the contracts even ceded the city's power of eminent domain to the developers, giving private businesses the ability to tell the city when it should confiscate private property.
Such flagrant abuse of public power for private purposes troubles most voters. In the wake of Kelo, some 43 states have reformed eminent domain laws to ensure they couldn't become a tool used casually against local homeowners on behalf of private interests. New Jersey is one of seven states that did nothing. The Garden State's courts have been more active, however. In 2007, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that to qualify for blight, an area must be a detriment to the health, safety and welfare of its residents. Subsequent rulings have adopted this more robust protection of private property, including for the homeowners of Long Branch.
A bill now being considered by the New Jersey legislature would codify the blight standard now being used by the courts. It would also increase compensation and provide for clearer notice and rights for homeowners whose property is at risk. Eminent domain reform has languished too long in the state, and Senate Majority Leader Stephen Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts will be responsible for seeing that it isn't left on a shelf to expire at the end of the session. This is a populist cause that GOP candidate for governor Chris Christie could get behind.
Nothing can repay the homeowners of Long Branch for their decade-long ordeal, but their victory sends a welcome message to politicians who think private property can be confiscated at their whim.
Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A14
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