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“What should we do?” she asked.

“Call up Bull,” Von Winkle said.

She hung up and called Bullock’s office. He was working late. Breathless with anxiety, she described the condemnation notice.

“Tell me what it says,” Bullock said.

While she read, Bullock faced the oversized quote above his desk: “‘For the coming of that day shall I fight, I and … my chosen friends. For the freedom of Man. For his rights. For his life. For his honor.’—Ayn Rand.”

Susette finished reading. “Scott,” she said, “the wolves are at our door.”

He promised to get right back to her. Furious, he hung up and marched down the hall to Dana Berliner’s office.

“Now what?” she said, observing his fury.

“I am so pissed right now,” he said and launched into a tirade about the condemnation notices. “To do this the day before Thanksgiving is so outrageous.”

Berliner agreed.

“You know,” he said, “everyone in the nation is going to recognize how outrageous this is.”

“It will only increase the sympathy that most people will have for the property owners,” Berliner said.

“The NLDC doesn’t even have the decency to treat them with respect.”

“Obviously not,” she said.

“This has to stop! It has to stop!” he said. “I want to spread the word to as many people as possible about how wrong this is. This is a perfect example of the human toll of eminent-domain abuse.”

Bullock and Berliner spent most of Thanksgiving weekend working. Both single, both determined, and both workaholics, they formulated a game plan for getting the condemnation actions dismissed and saving the homes. They listed the immediate tasks:

• Draft the legal complaint.

• Develop a background paper on the case, discussing the case history and the plaintiffs’ background.

• Generate a media advisory.

• Produce a news release for distribution on the day the lawsuit would be filed.

• Plan an event in New London to accompany the filing.

All of it added up to filing a precedent-setting lawsuit against the City of New London and the NLDC. They had a lot to do and very little time. They focused first on the complaint.

“This could possibly have a number of causes of action,” Bullock said.

They started with the obvious. Under the Fifth Amendment, the government must have a public use or purpose when taking private property under eminent domain. Susette and her neighbors were convinced their properties were being taken to accommodate Pfizer or some other private party. Bullock and Berliner agreed.

“Plaintiffs’ property is slated for redevelopment not for public use, but rather as a health club, office space, and yet unnamed and unspecified development projects,” Bullock typed under the heading “FIRST COUNT” in the complaint. “Plaintiffs challenge this abuse of eminent domain authority as a violation of the Connecticut and United States Constitutions.”

They decided to point the finger at Pfizer in the complaint. “The development was to enhance the new Pfizer facility that was being built next to the Fort Trumbull neighborhood,” Bullock added. “Under the Connecticut and United States Constitution, private property may only be taken through eminent domain for ‘public use.’”

Bullock wanted to include another claim: equal protection. The right to own, use, and possess property is protected under the U.S. Constitution. In addition to requiring a legitimate or compelling reason for depriving someone of property rights, the equal-protection clause protected against discriminatory treatment. The city had deprived Susette and her neighbors of their property, while allowing the Italian Dramatic Club to keep its property. The city, in Bullock’s eyes, had treated similarly situated people differently. Under some circumstances, unequal treatment was actually permissible, but the government had to show a rational basis for discriminatory treatment.

“By permitting one property owner in the plan (the Italian Dramatic Club) to retain title and possession,” Bullock typed, “while denying the ability of Plaintiffs to retain title and possession of