Description:
The dramatic story of how a small neighborhood in Connecticut became the site and symbol of a political conflict over the use of eminent domain, mobilizing a national property rights movement.
In 2000, Susette Kelo and other residents of the Fort Trumbull neighborhood sued the city of New London, Connecticut. Two years earlier, the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer had built a facility adjacent to this area. Shortly thereafter, the city empowered the privately owned New London Development Corporation to use the power of eminent domain to implement a "comprehensive redevelopment plan" for the neighborhood. While the plaintiffs argued that economic development did not qualify as a valid "public use" under the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment, the Supreme Court decided in a controversial 2005 decision that the potential economic benefits of the plan justified the condemnation of private property as long as appropriate compensation was paid.
The Kelo decision implied that any town could transfer property to private developers on the grounds of possible future tax revenue and job creation, so long as that action was included in an economic development plan. The outrage over the decision unleashed a near-unanimous backlash, even resulting in an executive order from President George W. Bush instructing the federal government to limit the use of eminent domain. Numerous states passed ballot initiatives and legislation restricting eminent domain in the wake of the Kelo case. Despite this outcry, urban planners and others defended it as a necessary application of existing precedent that allowed cities flexibility to combat economic downturns. Lead plaintiff Susette Kelo and her pink house became a symbol of a growing national property rights movement and a deepening conflict between public officials and property owners, between large corporations and local communities. Perhaps most disastrously, after bulldozing the neighborhood the developer was unable to secure the necessary financing and abandoned the project, leaving empty lots where the plaintiffs' properties once stood. It would be many years before a feasible plan led to actual new construction and improvements.
Not for Sale recounts this iconic episode in recent legal history, giving full attention to both the human and legal elements of the story and offering a balanced consideration of each. The story remains as relevant as ever, especially since the Supreme Court has repeatedly refused to reconsider its decision, most recently in Bowers Development, LLC v. Oneida County Industrial Development Agency (2025).
Brief description:
Francine S. Romero is professor of public administration at the University of Texas at San Antonio.
Review Quotes:
"Twenty years after the Supreme Court's Kelo decision, localities' use of eminent domain in urban redevelopment remains highly controversial. Francine Romero's deeply researched and well-balanced review of the background of this case, the arguments of each side, and the reasoning of the courts, is essential reading for those who care about cities and want a better understanding of the challenges they face when trying to reinvent themselves."--Stephen J. K. Walters, author of Boom Towns: Restoring the Urban American Dream
"An engaging account of one indomitable small city's tumultuous turn on the national stage, with a welcome focus on the local. The book deftly weaves legal scholarship with historical narrative to present events and issues in their full 'no easy lessons' complexity."--Anna Vallye, editor of Urban Renewal and Highway Construction in New London, 1941-1975
"The Supreme Court's Kelo decision in 2005, resulting in the bulldozing of an entire neighborhood to make way for a fancy new development project that never materialized, outraged Americans of every political stripe. Frances Romero's fine new book, revisiting the controversial 5-4 ruling 20 years later, lays out the complex legal issues as well as the heartbreaking human issues. It's the no-win story of a dying New England city trying desperately to reinvent itself economically versus homeowners of modest means who wanted only to stay where they were in the neighborhood they loved."--Charlotte Allen, author of The Weekly Standard article "'Kelo' Revisited"
"Francine Romero's new book is a valuable and insightful account of the Kelo case, and the ongoing debate it has generated, which continues more than twenty years after the Supreme Court decision. It should be of great interest to both experts and interested laypeople."--Ilya Somin, George Mason University, author of The Grasping Hand: "Kelo v. City of New London" and the Limits of Eminent Domain
"Kelo v. New London was a rare United States Supreme Court decision that sent shock waves through American society. In Not for Sale, Francine Romero tells an engrossing tale of how the fate of one little pink house engaged the nation in an epic battle over how to define the public interest--whether as the responsibility to do anything to redevelop an economically struggling city or instead, to safeguard the unassailable property rights of a homeowner. This is the best treatment of the ongoing controversy over eminent domain that I have ever read."--Lizabeth Cohen, author of Saving America's Cities: Ed Logue and the Struggle to Renew Urban America in the Suburban Age