Justice Souter's Farmhouse Spared From Eminent Domain…80 year old Cincinnatian not so lucky.

MSNBC reports that voters in Supreme Court Justice David Souter’s hometown on Tuesday rejected a proposal to seize his 200-year-old farmhouse as payback for a ruling that expanded government’s authority to take property. Originally, the ballot measure called for the seizure of Souter’s home so that it could be turned into an inn called the Lost Liberty Hotel. But at a town meeting in February, residents of this town of 8,500 watered down the language.

The Cincinnati Enquirer reports that the city of Cincinnati has the right to take the home of an 80-year-old Clifton resident to move Dixmyth Avenue, north of Good Samaritan Hospital magistrate ruled Tuesday. That means Emma Dimasi, the widow who's lived at Dixmyth and Clifton avenues since 1959, could be forced from her home as soon as Saturday.

Hamilton County Common Pleas Magistrate Richard A. Bernat ruled in an eight-page decision that the city "did not commit fraud, act in bad faith, or abuse its discretion" in using eminent domain to take properties on Dixmyth Avenue.

Ron Jones, University of Cincinnati Law Library