Kelo v. New London and Eminent Domain

When the United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case of Kelo v. City of New London, Connecticut in February of 2005, the issue legally speaking was a seemingly straightforward matter of Fifth Amendment jurisprudence. What was at stake as a point of Constitutional law was the last clause of the Fifth Amendment, generally referred to as the "takings clause." The actual wording within the Bill of Rights is just twelve words long: "nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation." The government has an enumerated constitutional right, therefore, of what is termed eminent domain, and the only legal issue here was one of interpretation of those twelve words. To couch what was at stake in Kelo in such a deliberately bland and legalistic manner, though, utterly understates the extent of public outcry and outrage the Supreme...
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