Little Pink House

Official movie poster

The movie Little Pink House was released last Friday (in Berkeley at least) in what should be one of the most important films this year. It is an excellent, gut-wrenching film about someone just like you or me, with a strong performance by lead actress Catherine Keener. It covers Susette Kelo and the Institute for Justice's fight against eminent domain abuse by New London, a town in Connecticut.

Eminent domain is a legal process whereupon a government may take private property, with just compensation, for public use. However, jurisdictions have abused this government power to seize private property for the benefit of other private parties. These typically includes taking the homes of those less well off and giving them to wealthy interests such as major developers or corporations. Even Constitutionally compliant seizures have resulted in abuse such as lowballing appraisals to the landowners. In California's controversial high speed rail projects, dozens of lawsuits were filed, claiming that the state's offers are far below market rates.

**WARNING: spoilers ahead**

Although the Supreme Court sided with the city in a 5-4 decision in Kelo vs New London, it was a wildly unpopular ruling, with Justice John Paul Stevens, who wrote the majority opinion, saying it was the most unpopular ruling in his 34 year career. It was so unpopular, in fact, that it inspired over forty states to author legislation to limit eminent domain strictly to public benefit.

Today, Susette Kelo's little pink house is a dirt lot. Pfizer never moved forward with utilizing her or her neighbor's lands the city razed. Spending so much money on destroying homes to replace them with nothing is not exactly a recipe for economic success. Even if a case does end in something built, it is inherently unethical to allow what is essentially theft of private property, more or less shifted to another, typically wealthier, entity.

What is private property if any entity that has the iron fist of the government, occasionally colluding with the financial might of corporations, can just force someone out of their home? Susette Kelo's brave fight may not have saved her own home, but certainly saved countless other homes from being destroyed by publicizing her story. She may not have extraordinary powers like those in the popular superhero movies, but this certainly qualifies her for hero status of some kind.