Eminent Domain

Kansas City Lawyers Chapter

Speaker:

• Dave Roland, policy analyst, Show-Me Institute

Speaker:

• Dave Roland, policy analyst, Show-Me Institute

Roland will discuss two high-profile eminent domain cases, one decided by the Missouri Supreme Court and the other by the U.S. Supreme Court.

In Tourkakis v. City of Arnold, a local dentist argued that eminent domain could be used only by state agencies and local governments operating under a constitutional charter. As a non-charter city Arnold had no right to use eminent domain, Homer Tourkakis argued. The Missouri Supreme Court sided with the city. In Kelo v. New London (Conn.), a property owner objected to the use of eminent domain when it benefited a commercial developer. The U.S. Supreme Court sided with the city in that case, too.

The Kelo case was widely perceived by property rights advocates as a dangerous expansion of eminent domain, and the Tourkakis case has generated the same concern in Missouri.

Roland has written a paper for the Show-Me Institute outlining the state of individual property rights in Missouri called, "Gradual and Silent Encroachments: Tourkakis v. City of Arnold and the Erosion of Property Rights in Missouri."

Visit http://www.kcfedsoc.org/ for more information.