Sotomayor on Property Rights

27 July 2009 - 2:00pm

Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor was part of an appeals-court panel in 2006 that favored a private developer with the authority to seize land by eminent domain.

"With the Senate's expected confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, many small-business owners are fearful that the future court will make it that much easier for powerful developers to evict them for any reason.

Why would Judge Sotomayor make a difference? At issue is a precedent that property-rights experts say Sotomayor helped set in 2006 in a case between a private developer empowered by eminent domain and a small-business owner like St. John."

Source: The Christian Science Monitor, July 25, 2009
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Short of erasing existing political and jurisdictional boundaries, citizens and officials need to develop the capacity to work across boundaries according to the "problem-sheds" of the land and water issues we face in the 21st century.