Here are the amici briefs supporting the property owner’s cert petition in a case we’ve been following for a long time, Eychaner v. City of Chicago, No. 20-1214.
This is the one in which the Illinois courts concluded that Chicago’s desire to prevent “future blight” is enough of a public use to support the taking of private property. Yes, you read that right: future blight.
- Liberty Justice Center (planners are not very good at predicting “future” blight)
- Pacific Legal Foundation and NFIB Small Business Legal Center (the standards for public use are “irreparably divided” after Kelo)
- Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence (corpus linguistics scholarship confirms that “public use” requires actual public use — not purpose).
- Cato Institute (it’s time to overrule Kelo)
- Law Professors (arguing that the term “blight” has become essentially meaningless, and that such designations have been used unfairly to take property in “poor neighborhoods and communities of color”)
Disclosure: as you can see, Pacific Legal Foundation (our law firm) filed one of the briefs.
Stay tuned. The Court has requested a response from Illinois (due May 14, 2021), and we’ll bring that your way when it is filed.