Citing Deference to ‘Broad’ Government Power, Judge Says Atlantic City May Bulldoze Home to Benefit Casino

According to the New Jersey Constitution, state officials may
only condemn private property for redevelopment purposes when that
property is “blighted.” Yet in a ruling issued on Monday, Judge
Julio L. Mendez of the New Jersey Superior Court allowed Atlantic
City to seize one man’s non-blighted family home. Why? Because the
state enjoys “broad” powers, the judge said, and the courts have no
business standing in the way.

Known as
Casino Reinvestment Development Authority v. Birnbaum,
this case originated in 2012 when Atlantic City officials announced
a “South Inlet Mixed Use Development Project” designed to
“complement the new Revel Casino and assist with the demands
created by the resort.” Although the specifics of the plan were
never announced and the Revel Casino recently declared bankruptcy,
state officials have persisted in their efforts to snatch up
various parcels of land on behalf of this shadowy real estate
scheme. Among the properties targeted for condemnation is the
well-tended family home of Charles Birnbaum, located near the
Atlantic City boardwalk.

“The so-called Project consists entirely of high-blown rhetoric
and a handful of ‘conceptual’ drawings provided by the Revel
Casino,” Birnbaum and his lawyers at the Institute for Justice told
the court. “This project fails to satisfy any of the requirements
that would allow CRDA to take the Birnbaum Family Home.”

They’re right. Birnbaum’s home is neither blighted nor in need
of any urban renewal. And as the New Jersey Supreme Court has

plainly stated, “the New Jersey Constitution authorizes
government redevelopment of only ‘blighted areas.'”

Yet despite the clear limitations imposed on state eminent
domain power by both constitutional text and legal precedent, Judge
Mendez went ahead and rubber stamped the land grab anyway. The
CRDA’s actions, he said, serve “the public purpose of promoting
tourism and assisting the ailing gaming industry.”

But if that loose standard is allowed to become law, no property
in or around Atlantic City would ever be safe from the government’s
bulldozers.

Fortunately, the case is not done yet. Birnbaum plans to file an
appeal and as his lawyer Robert McNamara declared, “the
Constitution of New Jersey does not allow this, the people of New
Jersey should not tolerate this, and neither Charlie nor the
Institute for Justice will permit this ruling to stand.”