Widow rejected $1M for her home, then fought eminent domain and won

“Individual freedom finds tangible expression in property rights.” Those words, written by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, capture a principle that lies at the heart of a free society. Yet across the country, that principle has often been tested, sometimes by powerful developers, sometimes by government agencies eager to serve private interests under the guise of public good.Few stories illustrate this tension more vividly than that of Vera Coking, an elderly widow from Atlantic City, New Jersey, whose modest boarding house became the centre of a decades-long legal battle involving Donald Trump, state condemnation powers and the limits of eminent domain, according to Institute of Justice.A home worth more than moneyVera Coking had lived in her three-story boarding house on Atlantic Avenue for more than 30 years. The property was not grand, but it was hers; a place of stability, independence and memory. In the early 1980s, as Donald Trump was expanding his casino empire in Atlantic City, he approached Coking with an offer to buy her home. According to later reports, Trump offered her more than $1 million, along with housing for life, if she would sell.Coking refused.She ...