Ethics

This is Serious Chutzpah

By Ed Brayton

Sandefur alerted me to this situation, which he writes about at the eminent domain blog.

Y'all remember the Freeport, Texas, eminent domain case? It was the subject of Carla Main's excellent book Bulldozed, which I reviewed here. It's a case in which the City of Freeport decided to condemn a family-owned business called Western Seafood, and give the land to a private developer to construct a shopping center. The Pacific Legal Foundation filed two briefs supporting the property rights of the Gore family, owners of Western Seafood. (You can read them here: 1, 2).

Now that it looks like the Gores will be allowed to keep their land, the Texas oil millionaire who owns the development company--a fellow by the name of H. Walker Royall--has filed a lawsuit against Carla Main, the author, against her publishing company, and even against well known law professor Richard Epstein, on the grounds that Bulldozed (which, again, is an outstanding book that everyone should read) libels him! He's suing Epstein because Epstein has a blurb on the back of the book recommending that people read it!

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on December 14, 2008 (boomark / email).