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Article Excerpt
BULLDOZED

By Carla T. Main

276 pages; Encounter Books, 2007

In 2005, eminent domain became a hot national issue as a result of the Supreme Court's decision in Kelo v. New London. While property rights scholars and libertarian activists had long known about the nasty, authoritarian business of taking private property away from people through eminent domain and then transferring it to others who were expected to make "better" use of it, Kelo's holding that it was permissible under the Constitution for governments to seize property for "economic development" purposes outraged great numbers of Americans. The palpable unfairness of tossing poor homeowners out just so a business can put up a new mall, hotel, or office complex that would increase the city's tax collections brought together a broad coalition of Americans who wanted to see the law reformed.

The anti-Kelo movement won a few victories in state legislatures, but lost others. Today, much of the steam seems to have gone out of it. With the publication of former National Law Journal editor Carla Main's book Bulldozed, however, the reform movement should get a jolt of new energy. It is an incendiary book that centers on a protracted and highly revealing eminent domain battle in Freeport, Texas, where a Family's efforts to save their small business from condemnation was of Alamo proportions--but with the defenders holding out. What makes Bulldozed so compelling is the wealth of detail Main presents on the slimy, despicable tactics used by city officials in an effort to get their way. Thus,...

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