US Supreme Court declines to hear Baltimore eminent domain case

Lorraine Mirabella, The Baltimore Sun on Nov 9, 2026

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

The U.S. Supreme Court declined Monday to take on a civil rights case filed by residents of Poppleton in West Baltimore who challenged the city’s eminent domain taking of homes under a 20-year-old, failed agreement with a developer.

The Poppleton Now Community Association and six residents filed the lawsuit in August 2024, alleging Baltimore’s contract with New York-based developer La Cité violated federal and state laws, and resulted in neighborhood blight.

The plaintiffs’ petition for the Supreme Court to hear the case was denied in an order issued Monday. The court agrees to hear oral arguments in just a fraction of appeals each year.

The residents’ lawsuit said the city’s 2006 agreement for La Cité to redevelop nearly 14 acres of the neighborhood — leading to the government seizing more than 500 homes — was unconstitutional because it never led to or intended to bring about a public benefit. Over 19 years, the developer completed just one apartment complex, the 262-unit CenterWest, out of an array of proposed mixed-use buildings.

The court’s decision marked the end of the residents’ legal fight, Thomas K. Prevas, an attorney for the plaintiffs, told The Baltimore Sun on Monday.

“It’s not the end of the road for Poppleton’s fight for itself, but it’s the end of the road for this case,” Prevas said. “I don’t think the community is at any point ready to give up fighting for their rights and their neighborhood.”

La Cité still controls the mostly vacant, city-owned site. In addition to the city and developer, the residents filed suit against La Cité’s president, Dan Bythewood, and former Mayor Sheila Dixon.

Representatives of La Cité could not be reached Monday. A spokeswoman for the city’s housing department did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.

After a hearing last year in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, resident and plaintiff Sonia Eaddy said residents filed the lawsuit as a last resort after “being ignored,” and working on their own to revive the neighborhood.

“We were tired of being disrespected and disregarded. … When time kept going and nothing was happening for us, we were going to have to take action of our own,” Eaddy said at the time.

Attorneys for the city and developer said during that 2025 hearing that the city had the right under eminent domain to seize property to redevelop a blighted community and to bring in a developer. They also said that the six residents who sued live adjacent to the site and did not lose their homes.

The residents appealed a loss in Baltimore federal court to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. That court found that plaintiffs had legal standing and had shown that the alleged constitutional violation was harmful, but agreed with the lower court that those residents in particular had not lost their homes. The residents petitioned the Supreme Court this year.

Prevas said he argued in the Supreme Court petition that residents should be heard to explain how taking property and giving it away in a perpetual agreement “is encumbering this entire community without any result. The tricky thing is whether you have to have your house taken to make that argument.”

_____