Party At Souter's!

[Mike]

Originally Posted by Mr Biglesworth

Wow, sounds absolutely surreal. What was the basis of the majority opinion asides from the flimsy 'it will indirectly help the community, somehow', other than that they're deranged liberals?

They were deranged liberals.

Oh ... wait...
Well, the swing vote was a conservative (Souter, of whom everybody is pissed) ... I haven't read his opinion yet because it takes a little while for all of them to get posted, where as the majority opinion is usually up on the internet the day after the decision is read.

For some brief history,

The 5th Amendment of the Constitution, hand-in-hand with the 14th, carries "the Takings clause" for Government seizure of property, with just compensation, as long as the seizing has a public use... Typically, this is applied to roads, rebeautification (a smut shop in the Commons of my town was bought out by the state per rebeuatification), and other government facilities that service the public. The just compensation is often a number far lower than the market-value of a house, often half as much of what a property would go for on the market, as its just what your property is appraised at by state and federal tax appraisers.

New London was declared a "distressed municipality" in the 1990s, especially after one of the larger Navy bases in the US, the Navy Undersea Warfare Center, was forced to close after military spending was cut in the mid 1990s. So, the 2000 or so people who worked and lived in the barraks, which is roughly 10% of the population was left without jobs... many of them moving to the neighboring town of Norwich or Groton, to be relocated at the Groton Navy Sub-base or a larger Nuclear energy facility just north of Norwich. So, while the local economy of surrounding towns was experience periods of growth, New London, especially in the area where the Navy base was located (known as the Fort Trumball area, named after some fort from a hundred years ago) was experiencing steady decline. So, in 1999, the powers that be decided that something had to be done. Just up the Thames river--an salt-water river that empties into the Long Island Sound--closer to Groton, Pfizer corp. opened their largest facility East of the Mississippi after the erecting success of Viagra. Pfizer expressed interest in opening a large gym, housing area, and recreational facility for Pfizer employees near the Groton facility. New London and the State of Connecticut was interested in replacing a section of town that was largely decaying, from the exodus from the city (which became a municipality due to population decline) to surrounding towns and cities. Many of the properties in the Fort Trumball area, though, were multi-century houses and properties owned by some of the original families who settled the area shortly after (James?) Hudson explored the Eastern seaboard, the Hudson river, and the Long Island Sound (and where he died in the Hudson bay, up in Der Canada).

So, you have some very expensive, very old properties intermingled with a rapidly declining community. The Connecticut real estate market has also grown considerably since the late-1980s with steady interest rates. Though still lower than most Massachusetts towns, the growing number of Connecticut-to-Boston commuters (only about an hour of easy highway driving) has driven real estate up in the last 10 years especially (especially with the financing/refinancing boom of the late 90s that has continued into today). The leading petitioner, Susette Kelo, bought her waterfront property on the Thames River in 1997, making considerable renovations and atleast doubling the property value. Most of the other petitioners have lived their for an average of over 25 years... one woman in the house that she was born in in 1917. These are their largest investments .. and when you're aging, you know that if you sell your house, you'll easily be several hundred thousand dollars richer. So these 15 or so petitioners were removed from their property, their property condemned (the term used when the state forces people off of their property).

-- NEWS BREAK -- (Justice) SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR JUST ANNOUNCED HER RETIREMENT

I gotta make the rounds at the regular political nonsense forums, I'll be back.

[Mike]

Ok, so that was news. Now, back to my stories.
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So these 15 petitioners or so take it through the CT supreme court, courts of probate, etc., and eventually take it to the Supreme Court where it is deliberated on for the last year, or whatever. And the decision is handed down last week.

Representing the opinion of the majority (5-4), Justice Stevens writes a lot of historical banter in his first two sections (I and II) and then gets into his decision in section III.

He admits that,

[quote]Two polar propositions are perfectly clear. On the one hand, it has long been accepted that the sovereign may not take the property of A for the sole purpose of transferring it to another private party B, even though A is paid just compensation. On the other hand, it is equally clear that a State may transfer property from one private party to another if future

[Mr Biglesworth]

I don't have anything to comment, you cover this so well. But what do you plan to do with your life, Mike? What degree(s) will you be getting what do you want to do with them?

[Mike]

To summarize Stevens' point:
These buildings will have a "public purpose," as they're not limited merely to private enterprizes... like say ... a dock-yard would be, or something, so that can constitute as a "public service." I happen to disagree with that because I don't think that it's providing any service to anybody. The money that is garnered by tax revenues is being used for something else other than the public services (like roads, schools, etc).

To answer your question... By next May, I'll have a Bachelors degree in Political Science, concentrations in Philosophy and History (though, theology is teetering on the edge, I'm like 2 classes away from completing that... but I don't really want to take a shit load of difficult classes that will only hurt my GPA, I did enough of that last semester and busted my balls to get a 3.4 ... where as I have a bunch of friends taking HIS200 classes completing their major and getting the same GPA)... I plan on going to law school. I'd like to go to Suffolk Law in Boston, but my GPA is like ... 3.1, and a lot of kids from my school apply there, many being rejected, so I dunno. I'll go to any Bar Certified school.

I have to take the LSATs in the fall. I don't even care about them, I just don't want to take the preperation courses ... because I don't have enough money for them. But, whatever, they'll come and they'll go .. .just like the money that I need to pay for them.

I tinker with the idea of doing something in a political office, but I've wanted to move away from that ... it's so much bull shit. And while I love bull shit of all kinds ... it's just bull shit that I wouldn't want to be involved in all day every day. I like bull shit where I can be honest and not try to pretend like it's good bull shit ... I like bad bullshit ... but it's all about smiling and kissing babies, which I'm good at ... but I don't want to do. I want to rip people ... just be some sarcastic asshole that NOBODY likes. Unfortunately, you can't really get a job in public life doing that, really.

So ... Real Estate Law it will probably be.

Thank you for your kind words. I'll send you choice meats.