Here is a novel solution to the Kelo decision:
I think, instead of sending lawyers, guns and money; someone needs to head to New London with a truckload of spotted owls, snail darters, and bald eagles . Once you turn them loose, all construction there would stop immediately.
Heh.
jimrhoads
That is reallllly funny. I think that is a great tactic. It should make for some real soul searching among those judges and justices for whom upholding government power is paramount. Unfortunately, although this tactic might stop construction, I am not sure it stops the sale of Kelo’s property or their subsequent eviction.
Jay Lozier
Maybe they could spread some rather inocuous radioisotpe like 32P on the site, and let it be known that they did so. Half-life two weeks, gone in a year, but how about the psychological impact on the investors and prospective tenants.
Or maybe some asbestos on the way out the door.
That might do it.
Jon H
There’s already two bald eagle nests in New London County. They probably catch fish along the Thames river around New London and the Groton sub base.
What might work would be if they could borrow an empty barrel which once held chemicals or lead paint or something, then bury that in the ground.
Finding the one barrel would at least raise the cost of using the land, because they’d probably be required to do expensive testing to determine the extent of the pollution.
Jon H
Actually, what they should really do is sell to the Native Americans who run Foxwoods or the other huge casino in the neighborhood.
Then the tribes could try to have the land declared as tribal property, tying up the land for several more years, while letting the current residents stay.
That’d be pretty sweet. The tribes would probably rack up some major brownie points with the little guys in the state.
They could really milk it, too. They could play up the “we know what it’s like to be thrown off our land” angle.
cburke
Or they’ll just do what the suburb next to me did (Carrollton, Texas). The city wanted to build a library on land protected for blue herons, and were told they could not. So at three in the morning, the contractors razed the land and claimed ignorance of the land being protected the next day. And since the damage had already been done, they might as well build.
There’s a library there today.
M. Scott Eiland
That’d be fine for homeowners who never want to do anything else with their land ever again–for anyone else it would be exchanging inadequate compensation for outright confiscation.