Ohio has long been seen as one of the worst abusers of eminent domain in the country. The combination of a slow economy (lower taxes), older infrastructure, and local Democratic Party machines has created an environment where personal property rights have been trampled to improve the tax base.

And parts of me can see the reasoning. Some of the prospects for the smaller Ohio cities are bleak. However, taking a mans property by the government is so much more wrong. That these local governments never see this is frightening and I am very pleased with the ruling today by the Ohio Supreme Court. Their recognition of the rights that the Federal Supreme Court could not see is inspiring and we owe them a debt of gratitude.

In a unanimous and lengthy decision, the Court laid out a series of important legal opinions.  The Ohio Supreme Court explicitly rejected the U.S. Supreme Court’s infamous Kelo decision of June 2005, in which that Court held that local governments can take property from one person and transfer it to another because the new owner might produce more taxes or more jobs than the current one-so-called “economic development.”  Second, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that state courts must apply “heightened scrutiny” to uses of eminent domain, especially when the property is being taken for use by another private party; according to the Court, lower Ohio courts should not simply rubber-stamp decisions by local government to take property.  Next, the Court held that statutes authorizing the taking of property cannot be vague.  The “deteriorating” standard used by Norwood “is a standardless standard,” and the Court rejected it.  Finally, the Court struck down Ohio’s statute that allowed property to be taken even before an appeals court ruled that the taking was legal.

Thank you Ohio for setting such a strong standard.

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