Protest targets justice’s property

CONCORD, N.H. – Angered by a Supreme Court ruling that gave local governments more power to seize people’s homes for economic development, a group of activists is trying to get one of the court’s justices evicted from his own home.

The court said New London, Conn., could seize homeowners’ property to develop a hotel, convention center, office space and condominiums next to Pfizer Inc.’s new research headquarters.

The city argued that tax revenues and new jobs from the development would benefit the public. The Pfizer complex was built, but seven homeowners challenged the rest of the development in court. The Supreme Court’s ruling against them prompted many states, including New Hampshire, to examine their eminent domain laws.

Activists, led by a California man, want Justice David Souter’s home seized to build an inn called the “Lost Liberty Hotel.”

They submitted enough petition signatures – only 25 were needed – to bring the matter before voters in March. This weekend, they’re descending on Souter’s hometown, the central New Hampshire town of Weare, population 8,500, to rally for support.

“This is in the tradition of the Boston Tea Party and the Pine Tree Riot,” organizer Logan Darrow Clements said, referring to the riot that took place during the winter of 1771-1772, when colonists in Weare beat up officials appointed by King George III who had fined them for logging white pines without approval.

“All we’re trying to do is put an end to eminent domain abuse,” Clements said, by having those who advocate or facilitate it “live under it, so they understand why it needs to end.”

Bill Quigley, Weare deputy police chief, said if protesters show up, they’re going to be told to stay across the street from a dirt road that leads to Souter’s farmhouse.

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