One of the highlights of my legal career was representing property owners in County of Wayne v. Hathcock, a landmark Michigan Supreme Court case that overturned the controversial Poletown Neighborhood Council v. Detroit decision.
In the 1981 Poletown case, the Michigan Supreme Court allowed the government to condemn private property and transfer it to another private entity for economic development purposes. This ruling led to the destruction of the Poletown neighborhood to make way for GM facilities, sparking decades of debate about property rights and the limits of public use.
On May 9, 2024, the Michigan Supreme Court Historical Society held a symposium at Wayne State University Law School to revisit the impact of Poletown and Hathcock. It was an honor to join the panel alongside Justice James Ryan (who wrote the dissent in Poletown), Mary Massaron (my co-counsel in Hathcock), and Chief Justice Robert Young Jr. (who authored the Hathcock majority opinion).
