Amicus Briefs

A diverse collection of thirteen groups recently filed ten separate amicus briefs with the Ohio Supreme Court in Norwood v. Gamble, a case that will determine whether Ohio cities will be permitted to condemn normal, unblighted neighborhoods so that private homes and businesses can be given to other private parties. Several organizations of national prominence submitted briefs, including the National Federation of Independent Businesses, the Reason Foundation, and the Becket Fund for Religious Liberties, each asking the Court to protect the homes of Joy and Carl Gamble, Joe Horney, and Carol Gooch by recognizing the boundaries imposed by the Ohio Constitution on the use of eminent domain. The coalition of amici included local chapters of respected national organizations, such as the Ohio Conference of the NAACP, the Ohio Farm Bureau, and the Ohio Association of Realtors, each of whom described its unique concern with the abuses of eminent domain that have become all-too-common across Ohio and the nation. Several briefs noted the dangers that eminent domain abuse poses to communities that lack the funding and political connections enjoyed by many commercial developers who encourage cities to condemn private properties on their own behalf. This will be the most important eminent domain case since the U.S. Supreme Court decided the now-infamous Kelo v. New London, and the first in which a state supreme court directly addresses the extent to which its constitution protects owners of non-blighted homes and businesses against condemnations that would take their property for someone else's private use..

The following files are downloadable in Adobe PDF file format. If you do not have Adobe PDF Reader you can Download it for free from the Adobe website.