Movement builds to seize Souter home
Libertarians Urge Seizure of Justice Breyer’s Property to Protest High Court Ruling
The Associated Press
08-01-2005
Critics of a U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that governments may seize private property for economic development want to use the process to seize a justice’s vacation home and turn it into a park.
The New Hampshire Libertarian Party is collecting signatures for a petition to ask the town to use Justice Stephen G. Breyer’s 167-acre Plainfield property to create a “Constitution Park,” with stone monuments to commemorate the U.S and New Hampshire constitutions, said party Vice Chairman Mike Lorrey.
“The point is: What goes around comes around,” Lorrey said. “This is a way of saying, ‘You’re going to be held to your own standard.'”
Lorrey said the Libertarian petition would place the land-taking request before a town meeting next spring. But Plainfield Town Administrator Steve Halleran said Friday that he didn’t expect voters to support the effort.
The Libertarian Party objects to the high court’s June ruling that let a Connecticut city take land by eminent domain and turn it over to a private developer.
Breyer supported the decision, as did Justice David Souter. Earlier this month, a member of the libertarian Free State Project suggested that the town of Weare, N.H., about 45 miles southeast of Plainfield, make Souter’s home into a “Lost Liberty Hotel.”
Logan Darrow Clements, of Los Angeles, said he’s received support from thousands of people across the country for the plan, and the town clerk in Weare said she had to return checks from people wishing to donate to a hotel construction fund.
Breyer did not immediately return a phone message to the Court seeking comment. Souter has declined to comment on the matter.
The Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling lets officials in New London, Conn., take older homes along the city’s waterfront for a private developer who plans to build offices, a hotel and a convention center.
http://wwwlaw.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1122627910797
THIS LAND WAS YOUR LAND
Movement builds to seize Souter home
If New Hampshire selectmen don’t bite, ballot initiatives planned
Posted: July 11, 2005
Supreme Court Justice David Souter probably never expected his vote to permit a Connecticut town the power to seize the homes of citizens would come back to haunt him.
But it may.
An effort by a Los Angeles advertising entrepreneur to persuade the city fathers of Weare, N.H., to turn the tables on Souter by seizing his home and building a hotel on the site is gaining steam.
Logan Darrow Clements and his company, Free Star Media, are now collecting online contributions from the public to support the project.
“There’s lots of work that still needs to be done to accomplish our objectives,” Clements told WND. “But I am confident we can be successful. This is a way ordinary Americans can fight back – not just against Souter, but against local officials who abuse their authority and callously seize the homes of law-abiding citizens out of sheer greed.”
The town of Weare has been inundated with calls in support of the proposal since WND first publicized the story of how Clements plans to turn eminent domain against one of its champions. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 two weeks ago that local towns and cities can seize homes and private businesses through eminent domain and turn the properties over to private developers for no other reason than the fact that it would result in higher tax revenues for the municipality.
“There are so many people who have come out of the woodwork to support me,” Clements said. “Government has just gotten far too big and far too powerful. … We’re trying to make a larger point that we’re losing freedom so fast in America that we have to stop what we’re doing and take a stand and fight it.”
A few days after the ruling, Clements faxed a request to Chip Meany, the code enforcement officer of Weare, seeking to start the application process to build a hotel on 34 Cilley Hill Road, the present location of Souter’s home.
“Am I taking this seriously? But of course,” Meany told the Associated Press. “In lieu of the recent Supreme Court decision, I would imagine that some people are pretty much upset. If it is their right to pursue this type of end, then by all means let the process begin.”
Clements wants to build “The Lost Liberty Hotel” on the property as a kind of museum commemorating the lost right to private property in America.
The Kelo v. City of New London decision allows the New London, Conn., government to seize the homes and businesses of residents to facilitate the building of an office complex that would provide economic benefits to the area and more tax revenue to the city.
Though the practice of eminent domain is provided for in the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution, the case is significant because the seizure is for private development and not for “public use,” such as a highway or bridge. The decision has been roundly criticized by property-rights activists and limited-government commentators.
The first step in the process, said Clements, is to get the Weare Board of Selectmen to vote in favor of the seizure. However, even if that action is unsuccessful, Clements says citizens in the town can and will draft a ballot initiative to accomplish the objective.
Logan Darrow Clements, the man behind the movement to seize U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter’s New Hampshire home through eminent domain will be the guest today July11 on “Joseph Farah’s WorldNetDaily RadioActive,” the nationally syndicated talk program.
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=45205
Proposal Made to Seize Souter’s Property
Thu Jun 30, 2005
Following a Supreme Court ruling last week that gave local governments power to seize private property, someone has suggested taking over Justice David Souter’s New Hampshire farmhouse and turning it into a hotel.
“The justification for such an eminent domain action is that our hotel will better serve the public interest as it will bring in economic development and higher tax revenue to Weare,” Logan Darrow Clements of California wrote in a letter faxed to town officials in Weare on Tuesday.
Souter, a longtime Weare resident, joined in the 5-4 court decision allowing governments to seize private property from one owner and turn it over to another if doing so would benefit a community.
The letter dubbing the project the “Lost Liberty Hotel” was posted on conservative radio show host Rush Limbaugh’s Web site. Clements said it would include a dining room called the “Just Desserts Cafe” an a museum focused on the “loss of freedom in America.”
A message seeking comment from Souter was left at his office Wednesday morning. The court has recessed and Souter was still in Washington, one of his secretaries said.
A few police cruisers were parked on the edge of Souter’s property Tuesday.
“It was a precaution, just being protective,” said Lt. Mark Bodanza.
Clements is the CEO of Los Angeles-based Freestar Media that fights “abusive” government through a Web site and cable show. He plans to move to New Hampshire soon as part of the Free State Project, a group that supports limiting government powers, the Monitor reported.
The letter was passed along to the board of selectmen. If the five-member board were to endorse the hotel project, zoning laws would have to be changed and the hotel would have to get approval from the planning board. Messages seeking comment were left with Laura Buono, board chairwoman.
“Am I taking this seriously? But of course,” said Charles Meany, Weare’s code enforcement officer. “In lieu of the recent Supreme Court decision, I would imagine that some people are pretty much upset. If it is their right to pursue this type of end, then by all means let the process begin.”
Souter’s two-story colonial farmhouse is assessed at a little more than $100,000 and brought in $2,895 in property taxes last year.
The Supreme Court case involved the city of New London, Conn. The justices ruled that City Hall may take over property through eminent domain to make way for a hotel and convention center.
In his majority opinion, Justice John Paul Stevens said New London could pursue private development under the Fifth Amendment, which allows governments to take private property if the land is for public use. He said the project the city has in mind promises to bring more jobs and revenue.
At least eight states – Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, South Carolina and Washington – forbid the use of eminent domain for economic development unless it is to eliminate blight. Other states either expressly allow private property to be taken for private economic purposes or have not spoken clearly to the question.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050630/ap_on_re_us/souter_property_3
Activist Tries a Grab for Jurist’s Property
A foe of the high court’s eminent domain ruling wants to apply it to seize David H. Souter’s home.
By Benjamin Weyl
Times Staff Writer
June 30, 2005
WASHINGTON – An activist angered by a Supreme Court property-rights decision proposed this week that the town of Weare, N.H., give Justice David H. Souter a taste of his own legal medicine.
Souter, who owns a home in the south-central New Hampshire town, voted with the majority last week in the case of Kilo vs. City of New London. The court found that the Connecticut city could use the power of eminent domain to seize private property to make way for an urban redevelopment project that would provide broad economic benefits to the community.
The proposal to seize Souter’s modest home, though it may be far-fetched, has gained support from conservatives across the country. It showed up in a letter faxed to a Weare town official Monday.
In the letter, Logan Darrow Clements, a Los Angeles resident who is described on his company’s website as chief executive of Freestar Media, proposed building a hotel on Souter’s property.
“The justification for such an eminent domain action is that our hotel will better serve the public interest as it will bring in economic development and higher tax revenue to Weare,” Clements wrote.
In an interview, Clements said he was inspired to take action by the book “Atlas Shrugged” and by its author, Ayn Rand, an apostle of capitalism and what she called “rational self interest.”
A spokeswoman for the Supreme Court, Kathy Arberg, declined to comment Wednesday.
Those familiar with Souter’s home site said it was an unlikely spot for a hotel.
Clements said in a press statement that his proposal “is not a prank” and that he planned to raise investment capital from “liberty advocates” around the country to build a “Lost Liberty Hotel,” with a dining room called “Just Desserts Cafe.”
Each hotel room would offer guests a bedside copy of Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged.”
The proposal pleased 100 or so conservatives at the regular Wednesday morning strategy meeting hosted in Washington by Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, a conservative organization.
“Let’s go rock and roll,” Norquist said after hearing of Clements’ idea.
The plan “highlights just how awful this decision was, and how divorced it was from any sense of justice and rights,” Norquist said.
He said that the New London case showed the importance of a president’s Supreme Court nominations, and predicted that it would ignite a backlash.
“This decision will be remembered 20 years from now by the right as a decision as important as Roe vs. Wade,” the 1973 decision guaranteeing a woman’s right to an abortion.
The Institute for Justice, a libertarian public interest law firm in Washington, said Wednesday it would devote $3 million to its “Hands Off My Home” campaign in the wake of the Supreme Court decision.
Clements faxed his letter to Charles Meany, code enforcement officer for Weare, a community of 6,865.
“I am taking it seriously,” Meany said of Clements’ letter. He said it had generated e-mail from across the country supporting the hotel initiative. “I have to afford him all the due process under the law.”
But, making clear the difficult path Clements faced, he said: “In New Hampshire, we really kind of consider our land a sacred thing and no one can really fiddle with it.”
http://www.latimes.com
Press Release
For Release Monday, June 27 to New Hampshire media
For Release Tuesday, June 28 to all other media
Weare, New Hampshire (PRWEB) Could a hotel be built on the land owned by Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter? A new ruling by the Supreme Court which was supported by Justice Souter himself itself might allow it. A private developer is seeking to use this very law to build a hotel on Souter’s land.
Justice Souter’s vote in the “Kelo vs. City of New London” decision allows city governments to take land from one private owner and give it to another if the government will generate greater tax revenue or other economic benefits when the land is developed by the new owner.
On Monday June 27, Logan Darrow Clements, faxed a request to Chip Meany the code enforcement officer of the Towne of Weare, New Hampshire seeking to start the application process to build a hotel on 34 Cilley Hill Road. This is the present location of Mr. Souter’s home.
Clements, CEO of Freestar Media, LLC, points out that the City of Weare will certainly gain greater tax revenue and economic benefits with a hotel on 34 Cilley Hill Road than allowing Mr. Souter to own the land.
The proposed development, called “The Lost Liberty Hotel” will feature the “Just Desserts Café” and include a museum, open to the public, featuring a permanent exhibit on the loss of freedom in America. Instead of a Gideon’s Bible each guest will receive a free copy of Ayn Rand’s novel “Atlas Shrugged.”
Clements indicated that the hotel must be built on this particular piece of land because it is a unique site being the home of someone largely responsible for destroying property rights for all Americans.
“This is not a prank” said Clements, “The Towne of Weare has five people on the Board of Selectmen. If three of them vote to use the power of eminent domain to take this land from Mr. Souter we can begin our hotel development.”
Clements’ plan is to raise investment capital from wealthy pro-liberty investors and draw up architectural plans. These plans would then be used to raise investment capital for the project. Clements hopes that regular customers of the hotel might include supporters of the Institute For Justice and participants in the Free State Project among others.
# # #
Logan Darrow Clements
Freestar Media, LLC
Phone 310-593-4843
logan@freestarmedia.com
http://www.freestarmedia.com
http://www.freestarmedia.com/hotellostliberty2.html
