US judge set to lose home under law he brought in

[emad]

By Charles Laurence in New York
(Filed: 10/07/2005)

A US Supreme Court Judge could lose his country farmhouse thanks to a controversial law which he himself voted to bring in.

Furious protesters are plotting to seize David Souter's $150,000 (£86,400) 19th century home and turn it into a hotel after he voted to give towns the legal right to make compulsory purchases. They view his support for the legislation as an affront to every American's inviolable right to personal property.


In retaliation, they are determined to make him pay with the loss of his home in the countryside outside the town of Weare in New Hampshire, where the official state motto is "Live Free or Die". The hotel would be called The Lost Freedom, and its restaurant, The Just Desserts.

Under the new law, a town may issue a compulsory purchase order - known in America as purchase by "eminent domain" - on a private property and pass it on to a commercial developer if it considers that the development would benefit the town and its people as a whole.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/07/10/wjudge10.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/07/10/ixworld.html

[Moderator]

1. Not LBN

This was much discussed over a week ago.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1594316