Warbird Information Exchange

O'Connor to mediate WWII land dispute
By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer
Tue Feb 6, 4:33 PM ET

WASHINGTON - Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor has agreed to mediate a long-running dispute over government reimbursement for land that was taken during World War II.

The case involves 36,000 acres of farmland, and the valuable natural resources beneath them, in western Kentucky that was taken by condemnation to build the Army's Camp Breckenridge as a training facility. The government paid the owners $3.1 million for the property in the early 1940s.

Hundreds of families had to leave, believing they might be allowed to buy back their property someday.

But by the early 1950s, the Defense Department learned there could be valuable oil and gas reserves beneath the land. The government sold the land and the mineral rights for $32 million in 1965.

It took an act of Congress before the families finally won the right to sue in 1993.

O'Connor was asked to step in by U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge Susan G. Braden after President Bush chose the original mediator in the suit, Fred Fielding, to be White House counsel.

Lawyers for the government and the heirs of the former landowners have until Feb. 15 to sign off on O'Connor's participation.

She will have roughly four months to determine whether a settlement is within reach.

Since leaving the court a year ago, O'Connor has sat on three federal appeals courts, been an outspoken advocate for judicial independence and served on the Iraq Study Group.

O'Connor, 76, maintains an office at the Supreme Court and continues to draw a salary.