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April 4, 2008
Yards foes to sing to Supremes
The Brooklyn Paper
By Dana Rubinstein
One of the top eminent domain attorneys in New York just reset the odds that the Supreme Court might choose to hear the case of Goldstein v. Pataki:
Eleven Brooklynites who still own land in the footprint of the mega-project asked the High Court on Monday to examine the state’s use of eminent domain to make way for Bruce Ratner’s development — and at least one expert gave the case a good chance of being heard by the Court, which turns down 99 percent of the 8,000 petitions it receives every year.
“The petition is very well written, so there’s a chance,” said attorney Michael Rikon, who once represented plaintiffs fighting eminent domain at Ratner’s Metrotech project.
Two months ago, Rikon said the odds were “extremely slim” that the case, Goldstein v. Pataki, would be accepted. But he said on Wednesday, “I’ve changed my opinion” because the plaintiffs, who include Freddy’s Bar and Daniel Goldstein of Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, may have found an inconsistency in the Court’s landmark 2005 Kelo decision.
Posted by lumi at April 4, 2008 5:28 AM