Oh frabjous day! Calloo! Callay!

I’m not finished reading all the opinions in the Wayne County case, but here’s the real meat of it:

Every business, every productive unit in society, does, as Justice COOLEY noted, contribute in some way to the commonweal. To justify the exercise of eminent domain solely on the basis of the fact that the use of that property by a private entity seeking its own profit might contribute to the economy’s health is to render impotent our constitutional limitations on the government’s power of eminent domain. Poletown’s “economic benefit” rationale would validate practically any exercise of the power of eminent domain on behalf of a private entity. After all, if one’s ownership of private property is forever subject to the government’s determination that another private party would put one’'s land to better use, then the ownership of real property is perpetually threatened by the expansion plans of any large discount retailer, “megastore,” or the like....

(slip op. at 45) Of all the cases I’ve worked on, I’m proudest of this one. Congratulations to attorney Alan Ackerman, the lead counsel for the property owners, who has done a bang-up job vindicating the Constitutional rights of all Michiganders!