Florida Takes Homes from 6,000 Residents Under New Eminent Domain Ruling

According to Science Daily, the Florida town of Riviera Beach—a community of 6,000 modest homes near Palm Beach—will be taken from its home-owners and turned over to a private developer, who plans to build a yacht club and several expensive homes. This is perfectly legal, following a US Supreme Court ruling this year (Kelo v. City of New London, Connecticut) that turned such decisions back to the states.

The town of Riviera Beach is mostly occupied by people who work in the nearby upscale community of Palm Beach. Median income for the 6,000 residents who will be subject to this taking is $19,000. The project that will replace their homes is a billion-dollar development.

"This is a community that's in dire need of jobs...," Mayor Michael Brown said. "If we don't use this power, cities will die."

Several states have acted to bar the use of eminent domain to take private property and turn it over to private developers, but Florida is not one of them. The US House has passed legislation to bar the use of federal transportation funds on projects where eminent domain was used to benefit private developers. Support on this issue is truly bipartisan: Rep. Maxine Waters, a liberal Democrat from California, wants to deny Community Development Block Grants to states that permit the taking of property for private benefit, while Texas Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican, is pushing a bill that would bar federal funds to any project where the Kelo decision is invoked to justify the taking.

Dana Berliner, a lawyer who represented the New London homeowners, warned, "Once someone can be replaced, so something more expensive can go where they were, every home and business in the country is subject to taking by someone else."

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