Live Blog Of NY Court Of Appeals Atlantic Yards Eminent Domain Abuse Case Oral Arguments

On Wednesday October 14, we followed the arguments in Goldstein v. New York State Urban Development Corp., the latest case involving the controversial Brooklyn Yards development and Kelo-like claims of eminent domain abuse in an economic development taking.

Joining in the commentary were Pacific Legal Foundation attorney and property rights scholar Timothy Sandefur, and my Damon Key colleague and eminent domain litigator Mark Murakami.

For a first hand report from the courtroom, check out Dean Patty Salkin's comment.

Comments

[Patty Salkin]

Enjoyed your real time coverage. I went in person to the oral arguments with students from my land use class. The Goldstein people hired a bus (maybe more than one) to bring people to the argument...the courtroom was packed and in an overflow situation. Many people had to watch on TV feeds in two other rooms. Along with some of my students, we gave up our seats at the request of Dan Goldstein and one of his lawyers...so we watched from the overflow room with other people from Brooklyn as well as attorneys, media and others interested in the argument.

It seemed to me that the Court spent a lot of time on whether they even had jurisdiction in this case. I expect some clarity to come from this one way or the other (they need to address it). Assuming they get passed this and go to the merits, I think they didn't care much about the public use argument, seems to me they already decided this one a long time ago.

The only argument that truly animated the Court was the constitutional requirement to provide low income housing and whether that applied here. This is a truly novel argument of many dimensions. This opened the door for the Court to ask specific questions about the public subsidies and exactly what they were underwriting in the project.

I understand from students who stayed in the courtroom that although there was appropriate decorum, the crowd had animated body language and a videographer was in the courtroom recording people's reactions to the Judges' questions and the attorney responses.

Patty Salkin

[D. Goldstein]

Prof Salkin should be aware that the Appellants won the jurisdiction issue with an emphatic ruling in the lower court (App. Div.)