Thread: Shocking New Developments In Supreme Court vs. Homeowners Ca

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Shocking New Developments In Supreme Court vs. Homeowners Case
News Media Blackout On 'Revving Bulldozers,' Intimidation And Harassment Of New London Residents

Prison Planet | June 24 2005

America has been reacting with overwhelming revulsion over the past two days to the Supreme Court's decision that local governments can force property owners to sell out and make way for private economic development when officials decide it would benefit the public, even if the property is not blighted, and the new project's success is not guaranteed.

However, shocking details that cast this entire farce in its true light have flown under the radar of mainstream media reports.

Those details came to the fore today during an interview on The Alex Jones Show, nationally syndicated on the Genesis Communications Radio Network, on which Michael Cristofaro, one of the New London Connecticut homeowners fighting the unconstitutional decision, appeared as a guest.

Cristofaro's family have lived in New London for forty two years and the city had already previously seized his first home by imminent domain in 1971.

Cristofaro related a series of actions by local government officials and their hired New London Development Corporation thugs that amount to nothing less than outright intimidation, harassment and extortion.

These include;

- An insulting offer of $60,000 from the government on a home worth $215,000.

- Unannounced visits to Cristofaro's elderly parent's home demanding they sign a contract to hand over their property.

- Intimidating and harassing phone calls at all hours of the day.

- Parking bulldozers and wrecking balls outside the houses pointing at the property with threats of "your house is next."

- Revving the engines of the bulldozers outside the houses in the early morning hours of the morning.

- Cristofaro's mother becoming distraught and suffering a heart attack after being served with condemnation papers that said she no longer owned her property and had ninety days to leave.

- A death bed plea from a 93-year-old resident begging "what about my house, what about my house?" The man had been living in his home for 80 years. The contractors would park construction vehicles on his property, make his house literally shake and would, Waco-style, shine bright floodlights into his home as his blind wife cowered in fear.

- A threat to charge residents back rent if they lost the case, effectively meaning the homeowners will have to pay the city to be kicked out of their own homes. One resident, William von Winkle (pictured above), would owe the city $200,000 in back rent

- When the Supreme Court decision was made on Thursday, the city had police cruisers and a fire truck casing the neighborhood because they feared the residents would riot. "What were they planning on doing? Hosing us down?" stated Cristofaro.

- Real Estate agents paid by the government to force residents to sign contracts to hand over their homes were on an $8,000 commission to get the signatures by any means possible.

- William von Winkle apartment tenants were forcibly evicted and locked out from their homes in the early morning hours during winter with snow on the ground, before the city even owned the property. Von Winkle had to break back into his own apartment block to prevent his tenants from freezing to death.

Cristofaro said 75 different families, most elderly and sick, were subject to this brutal torment.

Alex Jones telephoned several of Cristofaro's neighbors in the area and they confirmed that they had also been subjected to this persecution.

Imagine if your neighbour hired a bulldozer, parked it outside your house, and started revving it up and threatening to demolish your property if you didn't sign a document and hand your home over to him. He'd go to jail but the city government can do it to elderly people and the Supreme Court backs them up every inch of the way.

The Supreme Court also ruled twice in the past that blacks weren't human beings, are we supposed to just blindly follow their every dictate or should we stand up and fight these robber barons?

Cristofaro compared the situation to living in the Soviet Union. "Welcome to Russia," he stated, "that's what it feels like, you have no rights, the US Supreme Court just took away our property rights."

Alex Jones drew the analogy of Mafia tactics in assessing how the city government had treated the New London residents.

"These corporations come in and pay off city council members and then they come and steal your land and don't even pay you what it's worth."

"You take my cousin Luigi, you put him on as a store manager, you pay him $30,000 a year or we're gonna burn your business down."

"It's extortion ladies and gentlemen, it's racketeering."

Jones compared the activities to the Godfather movie, where the individual is given an 'offer he can't refuse' and told "sign the contract or your brains are going to be on it."

Cristofaro described the bulldozers aggressively revving their engines in front of the houses.

"Can you imagine seeing these big bulldozers pointing at your house revving their engines and you see a little smoke stack up on top of the little lid opening and closing with all that black smoke billowing. And all they'd do is rev it for about five or ten minutes, turn it off, turn it back on then they'd raise the front of the bulldozer."

The New London residents plan to fight the government to the bitter end and are currently pursuing numerous different legal options.

Support these brave residents in their stance against the New London city Mafia government and the New London Development Corporation. E mail this news article to all the radio hosts, World Net Daily, the Drudge Report, all the TV news stations, your Congressmen and Senators. The mainstream media ignored the very worst aspects of the case, the Soviet style harassment and intimidation of the New London homeowners. Demand that they bring these details to their reader's attention.

Click here to listen to the full MP3 interview from today's show.

RELATED

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Isnt this the thing we would expect from a police state country and not the United States.

WAKE UP AMERICA!

This is more than an illegal immigration problem. We are loosing our country.

They are shredding our Constitution, after that, what recourse do you have left. Does this not make you sick?


A Mad Dog Amongst The Bonesmen

By Louis Turner - Associate Editor



What stands acquitted of blame by history but a death so awful that swift extinction by a bullet is begged more often from a slave with a weak mind than the luxury of being untainted by a master that manipulates the will of his subjects? How many bytes of wisdom does a prudent man need in a smoke filled room to give him a will to resist tyranny and rise up and lead the masses to their salvation?

The lack of wisdom with understanding is the leech's praise. For this worm saps the will and rams the breastplate of righteousness until the dents in the armor pain and vex thee. But rather that thou protect thy mind from these sharp arrows that robbed the adventurousness by which the spirits of men are strengthened, ye would rather bend thy knee to the masters of the new world order and ignore their onslaught of the destruction of our blessed Constitution. This is one byte too many in this smoke filled room. You know it was well planned, and what will ye do when Louis is set loose upon the Authors of disinformation? The only thing I will see is 'Bones.' Skull and Bones.

Like a mad dog amongst the bonesmen, I will never be polite or apologetic. I shall rip thy little socialist ass to pieces and drag thy name amongst your wailing brethren. They will beg for mercy, and receive none. The locking jaw will hold tight until the entire world knows of thy satanic deeds that bent your writer's claw and scribed the nonsense of your precious Articles of stupidity.

Tell me, socialist. Was the Constitution written on flash paper to be burned on a command? Will you turn in your guns and be driven into sand? When this sand welds together and makes shiny glass; will you bend over to government and show them your ass?


"How we burned in the prison camps later thinking: What would things have been like if every police operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive? If during periods of mass arrests people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever was at hand? The organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt." - Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Nobel Prize winner and author of The Gulag Archipelago, who spent 11 years in Soviet concentration camps.

This century of ours has been marked most conspicuously by cowardice of the people throughout America. You bring up the subject of freedom and they stare at you as though you were from another planet. They don't see the Supreme court justice, now drunk with our own blood, staggering back against the pillars of the assembly hall, with writ in hand that damns our freedom. They don't see the tight-faced correspondent with a nose twice broken lying to them about the War on Terror in the box of lies that they view so faithfully every day. They don't see that both parties in congress are evil. They don't see that they have a choice when it comes to voting. They only see two parties to choose from instead of a third party. These people cant even see past the spiritual wickedness that is planting the dimple of joy upon the faces of prattling demons without the least stroke of wisdom, but yet they continue to snort the fine white powder that both conspiracies in congress are handing us.

These traitor's are no longer called 'Parties.' When was the last time you went to a Party? When was the last time you went to a Conspiracy?

Welcome to the description of the average Republican and Democrat you meet today. They twist and turn in their views so often and they call it 'Fair and balanced.' Fair to whom?

To obtain balance, you have to find the middle. Wait... I know. I just thought of a beautiful graphic that would best describe your 'Fair and balanced' routine. The Carnival. Oh, yes. The Ferris wheel. It's at the fair. And it's balanced. And it works well! Look at all the little monkeys for globalism in a 'Spin Zone from hell.'

My goal is simple:
To inspire people to have enough spiritual and political backbone so that our beliefs are not trampled on by the self-appointed socialist elites. Who are the self-appointed socialist elites? Republicans and Democrats for starters. They both thirst for fire in a liquid generation.

Fire?

For the love of fried pickles...

War!

The War Pigs pass the socialist cup of poisonous delight and the sheeplets drink it as fast as they receive it. The Pastors sway at the podium and bless it. The Congressmen wink and laws progress it. The alien rules and we accept it. The Constitution thrown out in the gutter - they left it. Republic over Democracy, the people reject it!

Is it perplexing that we do not speak about Hitler's in the plural? The small Hitler's surround us every day, tormenting us with their illusions of global conquest, while rejoicing in our weaknesses, demanding our trust, our votes, and our lives, while remaining indifferent to everything except their lust for blood and power. They claim they prevent war, secure disarmament, and resolve territorial and other disputes, which endanger peace and human rights while at the same time these small Hitler's are eradicating our rights to a null and void atmosphere of Constitutional contempt. Their voices are seductive, and their logic, if their preemptive authority is accepted, is unimpeachable in the shallow eyes of the socialistic sheeplet. They must have power, or they perish they think. Born in the petree dish, multicultured in diversity they stink. Pasteur's theory about germs has become quite a revelation. The little Hitler's have grown, and now infect the Nation.

In an attempt to kill a fly they drove into a telephone pole.

Listen carefully as both Candidates speak at their initiation into the Skull and Bones Society:

"Members, as you lay in your caskets and give 'The Oath of Secrecy,' Kerry and I will work together in the months ahead on other issues: We are proud members of Skull and Bones - yet as we act to win the war on perpetual terror, protect our people and do away with jobs in America, we must act first and foremost not as Republicans, not as Democrats, but as Socialists.

When America works, Socialists go hungry, so my economic security plan can be summed up in one sentence: Make the bastards pay more taxes to the ruling elite.



I would like to take this time out and thank my daddy for lying in bed with the Saudi people so we could control the problem of low gas prices in the USA.

Applause: Standing Ovation (hissing, chanting, and whispering)

Americans know economic security can vanish in an instant without health security. I ask Congress to join me this year to enact a patients' bill of fights. If they fight, strap them down. I want to give uninsured workers absolutely no help to buy health coverage. I want to approve an historic increase in spending for disinformation and give seniors a sound reason to fear for their lives. They have a duty to die, and I will see to that. I already have a website up that deals with their duty to die. This site is called: Die Now. And a modern Medicare system that includes this link in its information database is to be commended.

Through stricter standards of choosing credible witnesses, and tougher disclosure requirements, American sheeplets must be made into a frightened entity so that employees and shareholders never know what big brother might do to their years of hard work. Here is good news... Our credible witness to 911 speaks: 'I saw a slow moving, sad faced old gentleman as he bounced off the roof of my car. The pedestrian had no idea which way to run as I ran over him. I saw that Jet hit the Pentagon.'

For too long our culture has said, 'If it feels good, do it.' Now America is embracing a new ethic and a new creed: 'Let's throw GOD out of America.'

Applause: Standing Ovation (hissing, chanting, and whispering)

In the sacrifice of soldiers, the fierce brotherhood of freemasons, and the bravery and generosity of the illuminati, we have glimpsed what a new culture of responsibility could look like. We need to be a Nation that serves goals larger than self. We have been offered a unique opportunity, and we must not let this moment pass. We must learn to worship the humanistic standard of 'Me, Myself, and I.'

Applause: (hissing, chanting, and whispering)

People on Earth yearn to be oppressed and ignorantly await the midnight knock on their door by our international police. But we aren't knocking on their door; we are going to kick the door down!

Applause: (hissing, chanting, and whispering)

American workers want more than unemployment checks. They want a bigger government because they have been well duped by the communist media and our great blasphemous liars in congress. In order to achieve these great globalist objectives - to win the war, protect the homeland and revitalize our economy - our budget will run a deficit that will be so unbridled in history that we will need a new currency. And this will be done so long as Congress continues spending and sheeplets continue with their voting habits.

Applause: (hissing, chanting, and whispering)

My new productive farm policy will steal the farmers land, and break their backs into submission. What the hell, let's turn off their water again. I keep laughing about the suckerfish scheme. A cleaner environment. We will let the greenies go nuts with their global agenda. Broader home dis-ownership, especially among minorities will further drain the pocketbooks of the middle class. We just want them to think that we care if they get a home or not. Later we will start race wars and say whitey took their home. These sheeplets will come home and drive into the wrong house and collide with a tree that they don't own. We will find new ways to encourage the satanic work of cults so as to send more tripe down the pipeline of hell to the awaiting mouths of dumbed down sheep. Steadfast in our purpose, we now press on. We have known tyranny's price. We have shown tyranny's power. And in this great conflict, my fellow Americans, we will see tyranny's victory. Let the idiots vote us in again, and may they never realize that a third party could defeat us both in these elections.

Thank you all."

Applause: Standing Ovation (hissing, chanting, and whispering) - Skull and Bones 2004.


"I have ever deemed it fundamental for the United States never to take active part in the quarrels of Europe. Their political interests are entirely distinct from ours. Their mutual jealousies, their balance of power, their complicated alliances, their forms and principles of government, are all foreign to us. They are nations of eternal war." - Thomas Jefferson (1823)

About the Author:
Louis Turner boldly draws a sharp two-edged sword against the globalist elite and brazenly slaps the face of both political parties that are raping our Constitution. Louis hopes that with his new discovery in the Bible, (Isaiah 32) about the two forces of Evil that are present in the world (Republicans, and Democrats), he would awaken the sleeping giant in all of us to take action against the globalist machine. Visit his site. Sit back and enjoy.

http://www.federalobserver.com

I think we just lost our country and the very freedom it stands for ...

A revolution is on the horizon withen the next year.

Chris, it has to be THIS YEAR. The UN Millennium Agenda meets to finalize its Global Governance Plan in September. FTAA is to be ratified by December 31. Of course, its predecessor, CAFTA is to be voted on Tuesday. The open borders merger with Mex and Can has already begun.

The Courts are gone, we learned that yesterday. There is no White House, we learned 2 months ago.

Congress? We'll find out Tuesday.

Then we'll know for sure....whether we are Alone and on our Own....or Not.

Well,
I was ticked about the situation when I first heard it on the news. I was shocked and appalled to learn how far they had gone to steal these peoples homes.

JP--It is the one of the greatest demonstrations of "EVIL INVASION" into our legal system thus far.

The ramifications of this suit are simply the end of private property rights in the United States. How else could they move us from "homeowners" to Drone Dorms?

Judy, this explains it pretty well.

Property control a U.N. dream
Posted: June 25, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com

John Prescott, deputy prime minister, told the House of Commons that 10,000 homes would be demolished in a $2 billion program to create "sustainable communities." This massive "Pathfinder" program has been adopted to transform the UK into sustainable communities, a major step toward compliance with goal seven of the U.N.'s Millennium Development Goals and further implementation of the U.N.'s Agenda 21.

A similar program is under way in the United States, but proponents are careful to deny that the U.N. has any influence or involvement. The facts tell a different story.

In 1976, the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat I) was held in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Among the recommendations endorsed by the U.S., and adopted, are these:

A (1) (b) All countries should establish as a matter of urgency a national policy on human settlements, embodying the distribution of population ... over the national territory.

(c) (v) Such a policy should be devised to facilitate population redistribution to accord with the availability of resources.

D (1) (a) Public ownership or effective control of land in the public interest is the single most important means of ... achieving a more equitable distribution of the benefits of development whilst assuring that environmental impacts are considered.

(b) Land is a scarce resource whose management should be subject to public surveillance or control in the interest of the nation.

(d) Governments must maintain full jurisdiction and exercise complete sovereignty over such land with a view to freely planning development of human settlements. ...

In 1992, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development adopted Agenda 21, also endorsed by the U.S. Chapter seven, on human settlements, says:

7.4. The overall human settlement objective is to improve the social, economic and environmental quality of human settlements and the living and working environments of all people, in particular the urban and rural poor. These approaches should form the core principles of national settlement strategies.

What could possibly be wrong with this objective? It requires government to make all the decisions about where and how people must live, rather than a free market.

The promotional literature in England [a .pdf document] blames "market failures" for slums and degraded housing that the government must now step in to improve.

Actually, slums and degraded housing are not market failures; they are simply the evolving market at work. As people enter the work force, often they can only afford slum or degraded housing. But as they climb the economic ladder, they move to better housing, fueling the real estate and construction industries. When the slum area becomes so bad that no one wants to live there, the price of the property becomes very attractive to developers, who buy up the slums and replace them with properties that the developers hope to sell to new buyers. That's the way the market worked – until the latter part of the 20th century.

After the 1976 U.N. meeting in Vancouver, governments began to take a more active role in community development. The 1981 "Poletown" decision, in Michigan, allowed a city to take the homes of 4,200 people. Since then, governments, at every level, have created dozens of ways to gain "public ownership or effective control of land in the public interest," as recommended in the 1976 U.N. document.

Now, under the guise of improving the lives of everyone and protecting the environment, government, in England and in the United States, is taking control over the housing decisions of everyone. The fine print in the housing section of virtually every "comprehensive plan" proposed or adopted in recent years contains language that gives government the authority to dictate minute details, often including colors that may be used and the type of vegetation that must be used in landscaping. In King County, Wash., 65 percent of a private owner's land must be unused and left in natural condition.

Whether it is the result of an outright purchase by government, an eminent domain acquisition, a heritage area, a battlefield, a scenic highway designation, a wildlife refuge, a wetland, a critical habitat, a green belt or any one of dozens of other excuses, government is increasingly restricting where and how private citizens can live. The goal in the U.S. and UK is to create the "sustainable communities" as envisioned by a handful of people who reject free markets and to transform the world into a managed global society.

Sustainable communities is only one part of the sustainable development agenda. Sustainable agriculture, medicine, transportation, education and trade all have programs under way to give government ultimate control over every facet of human life.

The entire program is detailed in Agenda 21, which has never been debated or adopted by any legislative body. It is simply being implemented administratively, with assistance from legislators who see only small bits and pieces that are sold as progress.


Henry Lamb is the executive vice president of the Environmental Conservation Organization and chairman of Sovereignty International.

Judy, this explains it pretty well.


http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/artic ... E_ID=44972
Property control a U.N. dream
Posted: June 25, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com

John Prescott, deputy prime minister, told the House of Commons that 10,000 homes would be demolished in a $2 billion program to create "sustainable communities." This massive "Pathfinder" program has been adopted to transform the UK into sustainable communities, a major step toward compliance with goal seven of the U.N.'s Millennium Development Goals and further implementation of the U.N.'s Agenda 21.

A similar program is under way in the United States, but proponents are careful to deny that the U.N. has any influence or involvement. The facts tell a different story.

In 1976, the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat I) was held in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Among the recommendations endorsed by the U.S., and adopted, are these:

A (1) (b) All countries should establish as a matter of urgency a national policy on human settlements, embodying the distribution of population ... over the national territory.

(c) (v) Such a policy should be devised to facilitate population redistribution to accord with the availability of resources.

D (1) (a) Public ownership or effective control of land in the public interest is the single most important means of ... achieving a more equitable distribution of the benefits of development whilst assuring that environmental impacts are considered.

(b) Land is a scarce resource whose management should be subject to public surveillance or control in the interest of the nation.

(d) Governments must maintain full jurisdiction and exercise complete sovereignty over such land with a view to freely planning development of human settlements. ...

In 1992, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development adopted Agenda 21, also endorsed by the U.S. Chapter seven, on human settlements, says:

7.4. The overall human settlement objective is to improve the social, economic and environmental quality of human settlements and the living and working environments of all people, in particular the urban and rural poor. These approaches should form the core principles of national settlement strategies.

What could possibly be wrong with this objective? It requires government to make all the decisions about where and how people must live, rather than a free market.

The promotional literature in England [a .pdf document] blames "market failures" for slums and degraded housing that the government must now step in to improve.

Actually, slums and degraded housing are not market failures; they are simply the evolving market at work. As people enter the work force, often they can only afford slum or degraded housing. But as they climb the economic ladder, they move to better housing, fueling the real estate and construction industries. When the slum area becomes so bad that no one wants to live there, the price of the property becomes very attractive to developers, who buy up the slums and replace them with properties that the developers hope to sell to new buyers. That's the way the market worked – until the latter part of the 20th century.

After the 1976 U.N. meeting in Vancouver, governments began to take a more active role in community development. The 1981 "Poletown" decision, in Michigan, allowed a city to take the homes of 4,200 people. Since then, governments, at every level, have created dozens of ways to gain "public ownership or effective control of land in the public interest," as recommended in the 1976 U.N. document.

Now, under the guise of improving the lives of everyone and protecting the environment, government, in England and in the United States, is taking control over the housing decisions of everyone. The fine print in the housing section of virtually every "comprehensive plan" proposed or adopted in recent years contains language that gives government the authority to dictate minute details, often including colors that may be used and the type of vegetation that must be used in landscaping. In King County, Wash., 65 percent of a private owner's land must be unused and left in natural condition.

Whether it is the result of an outright purchase by government, an eminent domain acquisition, a heritage area, a battlefield, a scenic highway designation, a wildlife refuge, a wetland, a critical habitat, a green belt or any one of dozens of other excuses, government is increasingly restricting where and how private citizens can live. The goal in the U.S. and UK is to create the "sustainable communities" as envisioned by a handful of people who reject free markets and to transform the world into a managed global society.

Sustainable communities is only one part of the sustainable development agenda. Sustainable agriculture, medicine, transportation, education and trade all have programs under way to give government ultimate control over every facet of human life.

The entire program is detailed in Agenda 21, which has never been debated or adopted by any legislative body. It is simply being implemented administratively, with assistance from legislators who see only small bits and pieces that are sold as progress.


Henry Lamb is the executive vice president of the Environmental Conservation Organization and chairman of Sovereignty International.

STOP PROPERTY RIGHT VIOLATIONS
KELO VS. NEW LONDON


http://www.etherzone.com/petition.shtml
Yes, the government can now seize your property and give it to whoever they want to without regard to public use.

The petition says it all. We have got to put a stop to the violations of our Property rights in America. Stop by and sign it to let Congress know that you want your rights protected. Tell as many people as you can so we can put a stop to these violations against our 5th Amendment rights.

Call for Constitutional Amendment to overturn the decision of the Supreme Court in the matter of Kelo vs. New London and to protect American Citizens from future eminent domain violations

SIGN IT HERE

Your comments are invited here..... Horrible Supreme Court decision

This petition has been created to call for a Constitutional Amendment to Overturn the decision of the Supreme Court in the matter of Kelo vs. New London on June .23, 2005 and to protect American Citizens from future eminent domain violations. The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution says in part, “private properties shall not be taken for public use, without just compensation.� The decision of the Supreme Court allowed the city of New London to take private property not for Public use, But for the private use of the New London Development Corporation to generate tax revenue. An Amendment must be created to limit the use of eminent domain by Federal and State government(s) and to protect American Citizens from future violation.

We, The Undersigned, urge Congress to take direct action in creating an Amendment to protect all American Citizens from future eminent Domain violations, Whether it be by State or Federal agencies, and to overturn the Supreme Courts decision in the case of Kelo v. New London.

SIGN IT HERE
[Case reference for petition]

Your comments are invited here..... Horrible Supreme Court decision

Kelo v. New London:

The city of New London, Connecticut had by the early 2000s fallen on hard economic times. The city's tax base and population were continually decreasing, and city leaders were growing desperate for some form of economic development. In 1998, the pharmaceutical company Pfizer began construction of a major research facility on the outskirts of the Fort Trumbull neighborhood of New London. Seeing an opportunity, the city of New London created the New London Development Corporation, a private entity under the control of the city government, to consider plans to redevelop the Fort Trumbull neighborhood and encourage new economic activities that might be brought in by the Pfizer plant.

The development corporation created a development plan that included a resort hotel and conference center, a new state park, 80-100 new residences, and various research, office, and retail space. The plan divided the area into six parcels, but did not specify the exact plans for development in any but the first parcel (the resort hotel and conference center). The city in 2000 approved the development plan and authorized the corporation to acquire land in the Fort Trumbull neighborhood.

Fort Trumbull was an older neighborhood, some 90 acres (364,000 m²) in size and including 115 residential and commercial lots. The development corporation offered to purchase all 115 lots; however, 15 of the landowners did not wish to sell to the corporation. Among these 15 landowners were the lead plaintiffs in this case, Susette Kelo, who owned a small home on the Thames River in the development area.

The city of New London chose to exercise its right of eminent domain. The city ordered the development corporation, a private entity acting as the city's legally appointed agent, to condemn the 15 holdout owners' lots.

The owners sued the city in Connecticut courts, arguing that the city had misused its eminent domain power. This power extends from the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which says in part that "private property [shall not] be taken for public use, without just compensation." Kelo et al argued that economic development, the stated purpose of the Development Corporation, did not qualify as public use.

This case was the first major eminent domain case heard at the Supreme Court in more than forty years. In that time, states and municipalities had slowly extended their use of eminent domain, frequently to include economic development purposes. In the Kelo case, there was an additional twist in that the development corporation was ostensibly a private entity; thus the plaintiffs argued that it was not constitutional for the government to take private property from one individual or corporation and give it to another, simply because the other might put the property to a use that would generate higher tax revenue.

The first eminent domain case since Berman to reach the Supreme Court, Kelo became the focus of vigorous discussion and attracted numerous supporters on both sides. Some 40 amicus curiae briefs were filed in the case, 25 on behalf of the petitioners.

The Supreme Court decision:

The case was argued on February 22, 2005. The case was heard by only seven members of the court with Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor presiding, as Chief Justice William Rehnquist was recuperating from medical treatment at home and Associate Justice John Paul Stevens was delayed on his return to Washington from Florida; both men read the briefs and oral argument transcripts and will participate in the case decision.

On June 23, 2005, The Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision has agreed with the City of New London.

[End Case reference for petition]

SIGN IT HERE
http://www.petitiononline.com/5amend/petition-sign.html

Your comments are invited here..... Horrible Supreme Court decision