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Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 30, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Secret to Immortality
Caroline B. Glick Silencing dissent in America
Oct. 29, 2009
Lini S. Kadaba: Do tactics avert flu or reduce humanity?
JWisdom.com We Must Revamp our Religious Vocabulary With Gavriel Aryeh Sanders ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 28, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Atheists in Bubbleland
JWisdom.com Why what we wear impacts who we are With Rabbis Mordechai Becher, Menachem Golberger and Aliza Bulow ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 27, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The United Nations Is Outraged Again, Or: Department of Mideast Static
JWisdom.com The Science of Love With Rabbi Jonathan Rietti ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 26, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Damaging disclosures with a twist
JWisdom.com Wisdom and Wonks With Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 23, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Are you ready for the ultimate pleasure?
JWisdom.com Watermark and oneness with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 4 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick Stop using limited powers in a way that expands our enemies' advantages over us
Oct. 22, 2009
Steven Emerson: Terror Cases Share Desire to Kill Americans
JWisdom.com No More More Family Fights --- Really? By Sarah Chana Radcliffe ( 5 minutes)
Oct. 21, 2009
Tonya Alanez: Holocaust denier sues survivor, calling Auschwitz memoir 'vicious lies'
JWisdom.com Meditating Jewishly: A Panacea for Success by Sarah Yoheved Rigler ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 20, 2009
Dennis Prager: Obama and Dalai Lama: Why Israel Worries about U.S. President
JWisdom.com Abraham was not religious By Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer ( 6 minutes)
Oct. 19, 2009
JWisdom.comWhy Good People Do Bad Things By Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 16, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The Perfect Number
JWisdom.com Hearing Voices By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick How Turkey was lost
Oct. 15, 2009
Jeff Jacoby: Peace vs. the 'peace process'
JWisdom.com: Former MTV producer and stand-up comedian Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff: Taming a Control Freak (A VERY fast 15 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review Feb. 13, 2009 / 19 Shevat 5769

Develop This! Kelo metastasis

By John H. Fund


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | In the years since the in famous 2003 Kelo case in which the Supreme Court narrowly upheld the right of government to seize property through eminent domain and then transfer it to private interests, abuses have proliferated. But not all merely involve the loss of property; some also threaten the basic right of free speech.


In recent years, lawsuits have been filed in Tennessee, Missouri, Texas and other states seeking to silence critics of private entities that stand to gain from eminent domain actions. The most brazen suit was filed last year by Dallas developer H. Walker Royall, who has worked for years to condemn a generations-old shrimp business owned by the Gore family of Gulfport, Texas, so he can build a marina. The project represented such a vivid clash between personal freedom and private interest that legal journalist Carla Main highlighted it in her book "Bulldozed: "Kelo, Eminent Domain and the American Lust for Land." Her book was reviewed favorably in many newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal.


But Mr. Royall, the developer whose actions were criticized in the book, fought back. Last year, he sued the author and her publisher, Encounter Books, for defamation. Stunningly, he even sued Professor Richard Epstein of the University of Chicago, one of the nation's foremost experts on eminent domain and author of the seminal 1985 book "Takings." What had he done to merit a lawsuit? Merely provide an endorsement for the book, which appeared on its back cover.


What did Prof. Epstein's libelous blurb say? In full, it read: "Like a Greek tragedy unfolding, Carla Main's book chronicles the eminent domain struggles in Freeport, Texas, which pitted the Gore family, with its longtime shrimp business, against the machinations of an unholy alliance between city politicians and avaricious developers. If you have ever shared the Supreme Court's unquestioned deference to the public planning process that shaped its ill-fated Kelo decision, you'll surely change your mind as you follow this sordid saga to its bitter end. You'll never look at eminent domain in the same way again."


Mr. Epstein couldn't believe he was included in Mr. Royall's scattershot lawsuit. "There are few times in my professional career when I've been flabbergasted and this is definitely one of them," he says, noting he has been involved in hundreds of legal cases over a 40-year career.


Luckily for him, the Washington-based Institute for Justice stepped in and is paying the legal bills in defending Ms. Main and Mr. Epstein in the lawsuit. Its attorneys say lawsuits brought against critics of eminent domain actions are merely an attempt to squelch public debate. "Mr. Royall should tell the public why he doesn't like Carla Main's book, rather than try to censor it," says Wesley Hottot, an attorney for the Institute for Justice.


I admit to some personal involvement with the players in this case. Mr. Epstein is a friend and Encounter published my last book. But there's nothing like knowledge of the motives of the figures at the heart of this case to expose how unjustified the attempted legal intimidation is. The Founders wrote the First Amendment in an effort to ensure a vigorous and open public debate. To drag people who engage in such discussion into court is an abuse of the legal process and gives legitimate defamation suits a bad name.

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.

JWR contributor John H. Fund is author, most recently, of "Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy". (Click HERE to purchase. Sales help fund JWR.)

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© 2006, John H. Fund

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