Case Problem with Sample Answer The Hope Partnership for Education, a religious organization, proposed to build a private independent middle school in a blighted neighborhood in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 2002, the Hope Partnership asked the Redevelopment Authority of the City of Philadelphia to acquire specifi c land for the project and sell it to the Hope Partnership for a nominal price. The land included a house at 1839 North Eighth Street owned by Mary Smith, whose daughter Veronica lived there with her family. The Authority offered Smith $12,000 for the house and initiated a taking of the property. Smith fi led a suit in a Pennsylvania state court against the Authority, admitting that the house was a “substandard structure in a blighted area,” but arguing that the taking was unconstitutional because its benefi ciary was private. The Authority asserted that only the public purpose of the taking should be considered, not the status of the property’s developer. On what basis can a government entity use the power of eminent domain to take property?

What are the limits to this power? How should the court rule?

Why? [In re Redevelopment Authority of City of Philadelphia, 588 Pa. 789, 906 A.2d 1197 (2006)]

—After you have answered Problem 36–4, compare your answer with the sample answer given on the Web site that accompanies this text. Go to www.cengage.com/blaw/blt, select “Chapter 36,” and click on “Case Problem with Sample Answer.”