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July 6, 2008
Spinning: SCOTUS on Atlantic Yards, and a Skyscraper
Culture of Congestion [NY Sun blog]
By Sanford Ikeda
The last time I blogged about Atlantic Yards, a group of local residents in the footprint of the project had petitioned the Supreme Court to halt the use of eminent domain to evict them from their property, on the grounds that the proposed complex is not sufficiently oriented toward public rather than private use.
Last week the Brooklyn Paper reported, in "Supremes Sing the Blues to Yards Foes," that the High Court denied without comment the 11 property owners' request that the High Court take up case, which has been rejected by two lower federal courts — though the court did reveal that Justice Samuel Alito, a known skeptic of eminent domain, voted to hear the case.
Too bad! However, the SCOTUS Blog suggests that Justice Alito's vote to hear the petition indicates that opponents of the use of the government's takings power in such instances have at least one sympathetic ear on the Court.
Posted by steve at July 6, 2008 6:52 AM