Although a law blog called Columbia University’s controversial use of eminent domain in Harlem “one of the Supreme Court ‘petitions to watch,’” the case was pretty quickly listed among those the justices will not hear. The court’s rejection of the case means that Columbia’s long-planned expansion into the neighborhood is assured. The university is to spend $6.3-billion to establish a science-and-health-care campus.
Columbia and the Empire State Development Corporation, a state agency that was helping the university acquire property, had been opposed by Nick Sprayregen, owner of a storage company, who had spent six years and $1.5-million trying to block the expansion plan, reported The New York Times.
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One Response to U.S. Supreme Court Will Not Block Columbia U.’s Expansion
dank48 - December 15, 2010 at 1:25 pm
“Eminent domain” has metasticized under the current Supreme Court, which by declining to hear this case is letting Columbia steal from its neighbors. There’s nothing new in this, of course; it’s been going on for thousands of years. Cf. 2 Samuel 11:1-27, 1 Kings 21: 1-16.
Of course today these things are handled in a more civilized manner. After all, Columbia University hasn’t actually had Mr. Sprayregen murdered for his wife, I mean vineyard, I mean storage company. So far.