The Supreme Court has decided against hearing the appeal of the property owners who were in the way of Columbia University’s expansion plans. Professor Glenn Harlan Reynolds has some distinctly negative thoughts about the impending seizure in this New York Post piece. Two small businesses will be taken by force of law so the university can aggrandize itself. As Reynolds observes, the powerful and politically connected don’t need property rights since the government almost never aims at their property. Eminent domain almost always victimizes the “little guy.” But who are a couple of little guys to stand in the way of Lee Bollinger’s magnificent vision?
It’s bad enough that the property owners will be evicted and their businesses ruined. But as Prof. Richard Epstein has noted, compensation to property owners in eminent domain cases is almost never enough to make them whole. I hope Bollinger starts up a fund to cover the losses of these property owners in full. Anyone think he will?