On September 28, 2004, the United States Supreme Court granted a property owner’s application for leave from a Connecticut Supreme Court decision upholding the constitutionality of the community’s taking of property with the specified purpose of creating jobs by selling the property to a private industrial user. As the petitioner land owners in Kelo express in their brief requesting leave, the critical question for the Court to determine is whether a taking for purely economic development by a city violates the public use clause of the Fifth Amendment. In reaching its decision, it is likely that the Court will find that this type of taking is rationally related to a legitimate government interest and is consequently constitutional – thereby leaving it to the states to impose more restrictive requirements on the condemnation processes and purposes.
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