‘I happen to agree with it 100 percent.” That was Donald Trump, speaking to Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto several months ago. The “it” in question was Kelo v. City of New London, a 2005 decision in which the U.S. Supreme Court gave its blessing to a local government’s seizure of private homes so that commercial-real-estate developers could bulldoze them and build something in their place in the name of “economic development” — leading, the city hoped, to higher tax revenues.
It is no wonder Trump loves the Kelo ruling. As a real-estate developer who has ingratiated himself with local authorities who can serve his interests, he has exploited an expansive definition of eminent domain — traditionally, the power of government to force the sale of private property for public use — for his own projects. Just ask Vera Coking, who fought the State of New Jersey’s effort to seize her home in Atlantic City and turn it over to Trump for a limo parking lot next to his Trump Plaza casino-hotel.
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