Charlie Birnbaum’s parents were Holocaust survivors whose patch of the American Dream was a modest Atlantic City home near the ocean.
Their son has held on to it — through hurricanes, economic slumps and even his mother’s murder.
Today, it may be taken away when the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority asks a state court to give it Charlie’s property.
The CRDA basically argues it has the right to take whatever properties it wants and do with them whatever it wants to reshape Atlantic City whatever way it wants.
Traditionally, to seize someone’s property through eminent domain, you had to show some public use — e.g., a bridge, a school, a highway.
But ever since the Supreme Court OK’d the seizure for economic purposes of some working-class Connecticut homes in its 2005 Kelo decision (for a development that was never built), governments have cast a greedy eye on homes they would like to take.
In Charlie’s case, it doesn’t matter that the CRDA doesn’t even know what exactly it intends to do with the property. It just thinks it can put it to better use than Charlie can — so it’s going to take it from him.
Robert McNamara, the Institute for Justice lawyer defending Charlie, calls this “pick first, plan later.”
The good news is that since the Kelo decision, the New Jersey courts have shown more skepticism about these land grabs.
And the Institute for Justice even won an earlier battle against an attempt to take an elderly woman’s home and give it to Donald Trump for a parking lot.
Here’s hoping Charlie gets his day in court — and to keep his own land.