High Court Says ‘Fuggedaboutit’ To Brooklyners’ Appeal, Kelo Challenge

[WSJ_law_blog]

As a Brooklyn resident, the Law Blog enjoys many quality local newspapers, from the Daily Eagle to the wonderfully understated Brooklyn Paper. If there’s one topic that’s consistently dominated the headlines of these publications, it’s the the Atlantic Yards project — a massive development plan by Bruce Ratner’s company, Forest City Ratner, to build a sports arena for the NBA’s New Jersey Nets, to be renamed the Brooklyn Nets, as well as offices and condos.



The Brooklyn Bears Community Garden group participates in a rally against the Atlantic Yards development project in Brooklyn, N.Y. (Credit: Associated Press/Shiho ***ada)


The plan has faced opposition from, among other celebrities, actor Steve Buscemi and the late Heath Ledger, whose former home, located in Brooklyn’s Boerum Hill neighborhood, was a short distance from the planned site. Anti-Atlantic-Yards sentiment has galvanized into a non-profit — Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn — which has been supporting an eminent domain suit against Forest City Ratner.

Today, that suit hit a snag when, on the third anniversary of Kelo v. New London — the controversial eminent domain decision from 2005, in which the Supreme Court ruled that municipalities could seize property for private development — the Court refused to reopen the same controversy that’s now raging over the Atlantic Yards project. (Click here for commentary from Scotus blog.)

As Scotus blog’s Lyle Denniston reports, the Court as a whole turned down an appeal by a group of homeowners and business operators who are likely to lose their property to the 22-acre development. However, he writes, owners of property appeared to have picked up an ally in Justice Alito, who was the only member of the Court to note that he would have granted review of the case. Justice Alito, as Denniston points out, was not on the Court for Kelo. But his predecessor, Sandra Day O?Connor, wrote the main dissent in that case. Scalia and Thomas also dissented in Kelo, though they didn’t reveal their votes in the cert decision.

According to a press release put out by Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, it’s not the end of the legal road for the plaintiffs. They’ll pursue their eminent domain case in New York state court.