This week marks the 20th anniversary of the infamous Supreme Court eminent domain Kelo decision. By a 5 to 4 vote, the court ruled that the forcible eviction of homes or businesses by private interests in the name of “economic development,” was a legitimate “public use” of eminent domain.

At the time, the late Supreme Court Justice Sandra O’Connor wrote in her dissent that the decision meant:

“All private property is now vulnerable to being taken and transferred to another private owner, so long as it might be upgraded…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.”

The results haven’t been quite that bad, because public uproar forced 47 states to change either their statutes or constitutions to reform eminent domain (the outliers are New York, Massachusetts and, bizarrely, Arkansas).

Kelo was all about an attempt by the pharma company, Pfizer, to condemn Suzette Kelo’s New London, Connecticut “little pink house” (along 14 others), so it could build a new plant and five-star hotel. Pfizer abandoned its plan in part because of the uproar.

The Supreme Court has declined to hear any new eminent domain cases. It’s high time for the Court to right an egregious error.