Evicted!: Property Rights and Eminent Domain in America

Evicted! is a practical and critical look at the vulnerability of Americans’ property rights to eminent domain abuse since the Supreme Court’s 2005 Kelo decision.

The 2005 Supreme Court decision Kelo v. City of New London, which upheld the taking of an individual’s home by local government for the sake of private development, unleashed a firestorm of controversy. The backlash against eminent domain cuts across partisan, ideological, and racial lines, with 4 out of 5 Americans opposing Kelo. Critics of Kelo claim that it represents a radical departure in the law, putting every homeowner in jeopardy of dispossession by government at the service of corporate interests. But are property rights and eminent domain truly in mortal conflict? Written for general readers, property owners, and local government officials seeking to understand the implications of Kelo for eminent domain and property law, Evicted! cuts through all the hype and hysteria surrounding Kelo and argues that the alleged wave of eminent domain abuse is mostly a myth.

Evicted! describes what property rights are, why the law protects them, and how eminent domain really works. Schultz shows that Kelo did not make new law but only broadened Supreme Court precedents, and he refutes claims that Kelo has opened the way to widespread eminent domain abuse. Nevertheless, the author identifies certain legislative changes that are needed at the local, state, and national levels to better protect individual property owners when corporate thugs and corrupt government officials occasionally gang up against them.

David Schultz is a Hamline University professor in the School of Business in St. Paul, MN, and a senior fellow at the University of Minnesota Law School’s Institute for Law and Politics.