“June 23, 2005 was a very dark day in our nation’s history,” Don Corace writes at the beginning of his new jeremiad defending property rights against rapacious government buttinskis. That was the day the Supreme Court handed down its shocking 5-4 decision in Kelo v. City of New London, affirming local governments’ rights to seize your home and flip it to another private owner if the new guy promises to bring in more tax revenue.

The public rightly shuddered with revulsion at the specter of their bedrock rights being subject to the whims of “redevelopment”-addicted local pols. Alarmed statehouses prepared scores of eminent domain-limiting bills, while city halls from coast to coast dug in their heels. The tension between those three – and the scattershot, logic-defying umpiring offered by the judiciary – forms the basic narrative conflict in Corace’s “Government Pirates.”

The Kelo case, involving a nice old lady who just wanted to protect her dream cottage against pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its municipal enablers, startled many Americans who didn’t think this kind of stuff could happen here. But Corace ably points out what many New Yorkers and other urbanites – particularly the poor – have long known: Eminent domain is like the Ring of Power in redevelopment schemes. Local officials insist they’re reluctant to use such terrible power, but sometimes you just gotta break an egg or three to make an omelet.

The book, which is designed and organized to maximize readings on the outrage-o-meter, comes chock-a-block with bullet-pointed anecdotes of redevelopers gone wild. There is the infamous case of Riviera Beach, a largely poor and African-American Florida town whose mayor worked for years to displace as many as 6,000 residents and 300 business owners to make way for a vague resort development. Closer to home, there’s the New York Times – who cheered on Kelo, natch – using eminent domain and corporate welfare to build its schmancy new digs in Midtown.

For Corace, eminent domain is just the gateway into a world where local governments respect no man’s castle. “Kelo has sparked a healthy dialogue, but eminent domain abuse is only the ‘tip of the iceberg,’ ” he writes. “Through local zoning and the regulation of wetlands and endangered species, governments take property without compensating owners and also extort land and money in return for approvals.”

Property owners nationwide wake up each day to learn that their local city councils have changed the rules about lot sizes, building heights, parking requirements, and so on, often serving to make the land functionally unusable. “Temporary” moratoria are implemented, typically without compensation for the handcuffed owners.

If Corace hits a discordant note, it’s in his anger at the “almighty power” of “unelected” judges, “dressed in black robes and sitting in a marbled temple.” He’s steamed that the judiciary has assumed the responsibility of judging laws against the Constitution, but if Kelo had turned out the way he wanted, that’s precisely what the Supreme Court would have done.

Corace’s on firmer ground detailing the collective incoherence of various court rulings, and the limitless reservoir of bad faith and money that local governments will tap into when they have a better idea for your property than you do.

Matt Welch is the editor in chief of Reason magazine.

Government Pirates

The Assault on Private Property Rights – and How We Can Fight It

by Don Corace

Harper