( Gee, did I just say don't take anything to the Michigan Supreme Court :>) )
Charles
<http://www.michigancitizen.com/images/ptrans.gif> >
By Diane Bukowski
The Michigan Citizen
DETROIT - Saying its landmark 1981 Poletown decision was a violation of the State Constitution and a contradiction of a century of previous case law, the Michigan Supreme Court on July 31 largely barred local governments from seizing land for private use.
The unanimous ruling, in Wayne County v. Hathcock, was authored by the court's four most conservative justices. It prevents Wayne County from seizing 40 parcels of private land interspersed in a 1,300-acre tract the county wants to use to build the private $2 billion Pinnacle Aeropark. The project includes plans for hotels, factories, offices, and a golf course adjacent to Metropolitan Airport.
The court said its decision is retroactive, meaning that it will affect pending cases that specifically challenged the Poletown decision, including a lawsuit filed by residents of Brush Park against the City of Detroit.
In the Poletown case, the court allowed the City of Detroit to seize and bulldoze hundreds of private homes, businesses and churches on the near east side so that General Motors could build an auto plant that replaced its Cadillac and Fleetwood facilities, actually cutting its total workforce. The company had threatened to move that production out of Detroit if it was not allowed to build at the Poletown site.
The Poletown ruling was the first of its kind in the country, and has been used since as precedent to seize private property in eminent domain cases nationwide.
"Because Poletown . . . was such a radical departure from fundamental constitutional principles and over a century of this Court's eminent domain jurisprudence . . . we must overrule Poletown in order to vindicate our Constitution, protect the people's property rights, and preserve the legitimacy of the judicial branch as the expositor - not creator - of fundamental law," said Justices Robert Young Jr., Maura Corrigan, Clifford Taylor and Stephen Markman.
Noting that Article 10, Section 2 of the state constitution requires that government seizures be performed for "public use," not just a "public purpose," the Court went on, "Before Poletown, we had never held that a private entity's pursuit of profit was a 'public use' . simply because one entity's profit maximization contributed to the health of the general economy."
Alan Ackerman, attorney for the plaintiffs in Hathcock, said, "This ruling means our government was meant to have limited powers, unlike in England, where private property could be taken for any use the king wanted. It will change the law of the land. It protects people's individual rights."
Ackerman said those signing amicus briefs in support of his clients included a broad political spectrum, ranging from libertarian right wing organizations like the Civic Legal Foundation and the Institute for Justice to the American Civil Liberties Union and Ralph Nader.
He said the decision should favorably impact residents of Brush Park, but that plaintiffs in the Graimark case, which involved land seizures on the city's far east side, had already signed off their property rights. Attorneys in that case failed to challenge the Poletown decision.
Ackerman's clients included private home, business and farmland owners. Lead plaintiff Edward Hathcock, who owns Gem Products and Supply, a kitchenware and millwork plant in the path of the Pinnacle project, was exultant at the court's decision.
"This shows what can happen if you stand up and fight, when enough's enough," said Hathcock. "This puts the county on notice that they can't just acquire our property."
Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano issued a written statement in reaction, saying, "The court ruling impacts economic development for the entire state. All municipalities and government entities are affected and must explore how they will be competitively leveraged to attract investments that result in jobs that improve the quality of life for those who live, work and raise their families in Wayne County."
Gwen Mingo is lead plaintiff in the Brush Park suit against the City of Detroit, which has seized the majority of the land there. A good deal of the remaining buildings in this historic district located off Woodward and I-75, have been destroyed in unsolved arson cases.
"This is wonderful news," Mingo said. "This shows that God works in high places and the victory is his. We give him the glory. Ours has been a horrendous ordeal for hundreds of people. Many have died or become very old, feeble and sick working to bring this to fruition. Many times I have driven burned up people to the hospital, and had to help those who were thrown out on the street and lost everything they had. But finally we see a light at the end of the tunnel."
Attorney George Corsetti was among dozens of people who were arrested in 1981 for participating in a sit-in at the Immaculate Conception Church located in Poletown, prior to the church's demolition. He and his associates documented the cost of the Poletown displacements on the residents' lives, in a film called, "Poletown Lives."
Reacting to the Hathcock decision, Corsetti said, "The justices who wrote the opinion were actually more interested in private property than in the trials and tribulations of the Poletown people."
Corsetti said that the Poletown precedent has been taught in law schools across the country as landmark case law, while at the same time many schools show his film to let students see the impact of such decisions.
The two consortiums in the final running to be named project developer were the Aeropark Alliance, Wayne County LLC, and the Metro South Development Group, LLC. The Aeropark Alliance is composed of companies who are prominent contributors to the campaigns of Democratic candidates, such as the Sterling Group, as well as Michigan Democratic Party co-chair Melvin "Butch" Hollowell.
The Metro South group is composed of companies who were prominent contributors to the campaigns of George W. Bush and John Engler, including The Heritage Group and Kojaian Lehman Brothers Partnership, and may have been likely to lose out in the contest.
E-mail: dbukowski at michigancitizen.com
