My parents—both immigrants and survivors of the Holocaust—left me many things: a love of this country, a deep passion for music and a home right near the boardwalk in Atlantic City. That home—my parents’ foothold in their adopted country—has been a source of love, tragedy and renewal to my family for the past 50 years. 

Unfortunately, a New Jersey state agency, the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority (CRDA), is trying to change all that. CRDA is trying to use eminent domain to seize my property as part of a “mixed-use development” project to complement the Revel Casino, which recently closed its doors after filing for bankruptcy. 

CRDA is just trying to take my home because it thinks it can. Eminent domain has traditionally been understood as the power of government to take private property for a public use, like a road or a public school. But some state agencies, like New Jersey’s CRDA, abuse eminent domain to take property for purely private development, like shopping centers and high-end boutiques.  

I joined with the Institute for Justice, a public interest law firm, to fight back and stop CRDA’s unconstitutional attempt to seize my home using eminent domain.