Susette Kelo would like to continue living in her newly-restored, waterfront home of seven years. Her neighbor, Wilhelmina Dery, would like to continue living in the home in which she was born in 1918 and, for the past fifty years, has shared with her husband, Charles. Pfizer Corporation, on the other hand, with sales last year totaling in excess of $45 billion, would prefer that the City of New London, Connecticut, condemn these and neighboring properties only to have the ninety acres on which they are located leased to a “Pfizer-pfriendly developer” at the bargain basement price of $1 per annum. Never mind that on this very same acreage, the developer is slated to construct some ninety “upscale residences.”
Of course, the ultimate question before the Court in this case is “whether the Fifth Amendment’s ‘public use’ requirement prohibits the exercise of eminent domain solely for reasons of ‘economic development’?”
