Posted by Eugene Volokh: USA Today Story on the Supreme Court's "Public Use" Case:
My father (Vladimir) pointed me to [1]this story on the Kelo case that was then about to be argued. It's not a bad story, but the one thing it omits is that the litigation has been shepherded throughout by the Institute for Justice, a public interest law firm that has for 15 years been mounting a concerted campaign for broader property rights protections. I believe they're helping the Kelos pro bono. (My brother Sasha worked on the Kelo case when he was an intern for IJ a few years ago; [DEL: and the really shameful thing is that the USA Today story didn't mention him :DEL] though I suppose I understand why that detail wasn't included . . . .) The article mentions amicus briefs filed by Reason Foundation, the NAACP, and AARP, so the article is pretty detailed. Wouldn't it have been interesting to also mention the organization that has been litigating this, rather than just referring to "Scott Bullock, an attorney for the property owners" (Scott is a long-time IJ employee), and to note that this is part of a concerted litigation strategy, and not just a random case? This is obviously not some awful travesty, and I realize that reporters operate under huge word pressures. Still, I thought the omission was worth noting. References 1. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-02-20-eminent-domain_x.htm _______________________________________________ Volokh mailing list [email protected] http://highsorcery.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/volokh
