12/03/2007
CONTACT: Melissa Sharp, 202-314-2068
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- This term, the Missouri Supreme Court will be deciding a critically important case for all property owners. The court is being asked to determine if an unchartered city or county in Missouri can use eminent domain to take property belonging to a private business. The National Federation of Independent Business Legal Foundation, the country's leading small-business legal advocate, is urging the court to limit eminent domain use in Missouri to only those cities and counties that are constitutionally chartered.
Only 2.9 percent of Missouri's cities are constitutionally chartered, and two thirds of current eminent domain cases involve unchartered municipalities. A victory in the Missouri Supreme Court would therefore halt the majority of eminent domain takings in Missouri and could influence eminent domain cases in other states. Since the U.S. Supreme Court's devastating decision in Kelo v. New London, which opened the door for widespread eminent domain abuse, NFIB has been fighting both at the federal and state levels to implement common sense limits on the government's authority to use eminent domain to take private property.
"This is an extremely important case for small-business owners and all property owners who want to protect their rights and ensure that the government's power to take private property is properly limited," said Karen Harned, executive director of NFIB's Legal Foundation.
The case before the court is City of Arnold v. Tourkakis. In this case, the City of Arnold seeks to condemn the business property of Dr. Homer Tourkakis, a local dentist and NFIB member, who has owned the property for over 20 years. Dr. Tourkakis argues that since Arnold is not chartered under the Missouri constitution, it does not have the power to take private property through the use of eminent domain.
The state Circuit Court found in favor of Dr. Tourkakis and issued two interesting holdings: 1) that the Kelo-esque goal of the city's actions -- to make way for the building of a shopping center -- does not constitute a "public use" under the Missouri constitution, and 2) that the Missouri constitution does not allow unchartered cities and counties to utilize the constitutional taking power.
"If the Supreme Court of Missouri upholds the Circuit Judge's decision, it would simultaneously end every taking by an unchartered city and county, and would also establish that Missouri does not accept the standard for public use that the Kelo case set out nationally," said Harned. "This would be a resounding victory for property owners in Missouri and hopefully will influence other state courts to look closely at how their state constitutions' limit eminent domain uses in their states."
The NFIB Legal Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization created to protect the rights of America's small-business owners by providing advisory material on legal issues and by ensuring that the voice of small business is heard in the nation's courts. The National Federation of Independent Business is the nation's leading small-business advocacy association, with offices in Washington, D.C., and all 50 state capitals.
