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Bowers Development, LLC v. Oneida County Industrial Development Agency, et al.

Paid petition · Appellate Division, Supreme Court of New York, Fourth Judicial Department, No. 22-0074 · judgment February 2, 2024


Certiorari denied · March 24, 2025
Pre-decision estimate: 6% cert probability (95% interval 4%–9%)

Before the decision, about 1.5× the 4.1% base rate. The model weighted this up for counsel who has won certiorari before, a dissent in the court below (flagged in the petition), and a business petitioner.

Questions presented

Kelo v. City of New London, 545 U.S. 469 (2004), held that when the government uses eminent domain to take property from a private owner to give it to a different private owner—where the taking occurs as part of a comprehensive economicredevelopment plan and where the identity of the new private owner was unknown at the time of the taking—the taking may be justified by asserted secondary public benefits subject only to minimal rational-basis review. The questions presented are:

  1. Does the Public Use Clause require something more than minimal rational-basis review when the government takes land from one private owner to give it to a specifically identified private owner outside the context of a comprehensive economicredevelopment plan?

  2. Should Kelo be overturned?

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Robert James McNamara
Institute for Justice

For respondent
Paul Joseph Goldman
Goldman Attorneys PLLC

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 2 conferences

Amicus briefs
3 cert-stage

Proceedings

  1. Mar 24 2025
    Petition DENIED.
  2. Mar 05 2025
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 3/21/2025.
  3. Feb 28 2025
    Electronic record received from the Appellate Division, Supreme Court of New York, Fourth Judicial Department.
  4. Feb 18 2025
    Record Requested.
  5. Feb 05 2025
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 2/21/2025.
  6. Feb 03 2025
    Reply of petitioner Bowers Development, LLC filed.
  7. Jan 21 2025
    Brief of respondents Oneida County Industrial Development Agency, et al. in opposition filed.
  8. Jan 21 2025
    Brief amicus curiae of County of Oneida, New York filed.
  9. Jan 21 2025
    Brief amici curiae of Cato Institute, et al. filed.
  10. Jan 21 2025
    Brief amicus curiae of The Buckeye Institute filed.
  11. Dec 18 2024
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due January 21, 2025)