In its infamous Kelo decision in 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that a New London, Conn., redevelopment agency could seize people's private homes by eminent domain not only for public works but also for corporate development.

The well-laid plans of redevelopers, however, did not pan out. The land where Susette Kelo's little pink house once stood remains undeveloped. The proposed hotel-retail-condo "urban village" has not been built. And earlier this month, Pfizer Inc. announced that it is closing the $350 million research center in New London that was the anchor for the New London redevelopment plan, and will be relocating some 1,500 jobs.

"They stole our home for economic development," ousted homeowner Michael Cristofaro told the New York Times. "It was all for Pfizer, and now they get up and walk away."

John Brooks, executive director the New London Development Center, told the Associated Press: "Development's going to happen once the economy rebounds."

But attorney Dana Berliner of the Institute for Justice, who represented Kelo and other homeowners, noted, "There was evidence back when we had the trial that nothing would be built on the land that was taken, and the courts just didn't want to look at that." The courts were too rapt at the notion of shiny and tax-rich waterfront development to care about the impact on largely blue-collar taxpayers who so desperately wanted to hold on to their ocean-view homes.

How can the government take citizens' homes so that private corporations can take the land for their own profit?

Explaining the decision to the Clark County Bar Association in 2005, Justice John Paul Stevens asserted that the court "focused on the purpose of the entire project, rather than its impact on the individuals who happen to own property in the targeted area."

There's a problem with painting the public good with such a broad brush. As Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote in her dissenting opinion: "The specter of condemnation hangs over all property. Nothing is to prevent the state from replacing any Motel 6 with a Ritz-Carlton, any home with a shopping mall, or any farm with a factory."

When it goes wrong, to paraphrase that Joni Mitchell song, they take paradise and put up an empty lot.