Justice David Souter gets his "Just Dessert"

Claim Made to Seize Supreme Court Justice Souter's Home After Court Ruling

After the Supreme Court ruling last week that allowed local governments to seize private property to be used for private development because it would benefit a community, a proposal has been made to take over Justice David Souter's New Hampshire farmhouse and turn in into a hotel, the Associated Press reports.

The proposal has come in a letter from California resident Logan Darrow Clements, the CEO of Freestar Media, which claims to fight, quote, "abusive" government through a website and cable show. In a letter to town officials in Weare, New Hampshire, Clements wrote, "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." He called the project the "Lost Liberty Hotel," and said it would have a dining room called the "Just Desserts Cafe" and a museum focused on, quote, "the loss of freedom in America."

If Weare's five-member board of selectmen approve the hotel project, zoning laws would have to be changed and hotel would have to get approval from the planning board. The farmhouse belonging to Souter, a longtime resident of Weare, is assessed at just over $100,000.

In the 5-4 Supreme Court decision Clements is angry about, the majority justices, including Souter, found that the city of New London, Connecticut, could take over private property to make way for a hotel and convention center. They found the Fifth Amendment power of eminent domain, which allows the government to take private property if the land is for public use, applied in this private use circumstance because it would better the community, bringing in more jobs and revenue.