New Jersey Land Grab Outlives the Casino It Was Supposed to Complement

A few months ago, Damon Root
noted a New Jersey eminent domain case in which the Casino
Reinvestment Development Authority (CRDA) was seeking to condemn a
home near the Atlantic City boardwalk so the property could be used
as part of a “mixed use development project” intended to
“complement the new Revel Casino and assist with the demands
created by the resort.” Since then Revel has gone bankrupt, and the
casino is scheduled to
close at the beginning of September. The Institute for Justice,
which represents the homeowner, Charlie Birnbaum, a piano tuner who
inherited the house from his immigrant parents, reports
that the CRDA is nevertheless pressing ahead with condemnation of
the property, for reasons even vaguer than its original nebulous
plan. “CRDA is not condemning Charlie’s property because CRDA needs
it,” says I.J.,
“but because it thinks it can.” 

Whether the CRDA is right about that remains to be seen. I.J.

argues that the proposed condemnation is illegal because the
CRDA cannot provide any reasonable assurance that the property will
be put to “public use,” because development alone cannot justify
the use of eminent domain, and because the CRDA cannot show that
the property is necessary to its project. I.J. says the CRDA’s plan
does not even pass muster under the permissive standard established
by the U.S. Supreme Court in
Kelo v. City of New London. That decision hinged on
what its author, Justice John Paul Stevens, described as a
“carefully formulated” development plan (which nevertheless
led
nowhere in the end). 

“CRDA had no plan for this property two years ago, and they have
no plan now,” says
I.J. attorney Dan Alban. “CRDA is taking Charlie’s property merely
because they think they can. CRDA should demonstrate some common
sense and common decency and announce that it will once and for all
just leave Charlie alone. That’s all he is asking for: to be left
alone to enjoy what is rightfully his.”