An absolute disgrace is unfolding in downtown Phoenix, Arizona, where a massive, government-backed university is using the heavy hand of the state to trample on the private property rights of an elderly American citizen.
Arizona State University and the Arizona Board of Regents have filed a condemnation lawsuit seeking to use eminent domain to forcibly take a 124-year-old historic home from its 89-year-old owner who has lived there and protected it for more than 50 years.
Eminent domain is the government’s “legal right” to seize private property for public use, provided the owner is paid “just compensation” (fair market value).
Robert Young, an 89-year-old former criminal defense attorney and real estate agent, has owned the Louis Emerson House in Phoenix’s Evans-Churchill neighborhood since 1975, according to Phoenix New Times.
Built in 1902, years before Arizona became a state, the Queen Anne-style Victorian home is one of the last surviving pre-statehood single-family residences in the area.
It sits on the Phoenix Historic Property Register and represents real craftsmanship from a bygone era when Phoenix was still a young territory town.
ASU wants the land — and plans to raze the home — to complete its sprawling new downtown health campus and medical school complex.
The $200 million project includes a five-story, 170,000-square-foot facility for the John Shufeldt School of Medicine and Medical Engineering, with groundbreaking already held in April. The university claims it needs “immediate possession.”
They made offers. Young said no. Now they’re trying to take it by force.
WATCH:
Arizona State University filed to use eminent domain to steal a 124 year old Phoenix home from a senior homeowner
The man who owns it is a 89 year old senior citizen who’s owned the home for 50 years
ASU says they need the land for their downtown health campus
ASU made… pic.twitter.com/7kxEGObTKG
— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) June 10, 2026
Phoenix New Times reported:
Young said ASU’s first offer for the property was only $190,000. He ignored it. ASU then bumped its offer to $999,000, but Young refused because ASU wouldn’t pay for relocating the house, which Young said would cost between $2 million and $3 million.
Young has since been given a precondemnation appraisal by ASU valuing the 833-square-foot house and its 4,642-square-foot lot at $850,000. A precondemnation appraisal is required before filing for eminent domain. Under Arizona law, owners of properties seized under eminent domain must be given “just compensation” determined by a jury of peers; however, a judge decides the legality of eminent domain, and construction can begin before compensation is determined.
[…]
Young said he has already spent thousands on legal fees trying to save the house. He has set up a petition that has gathered 600 signatures and is also working with Preserve Phoenix, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving and protecting historical buildings, neighborhoods and districts. The nonprofit recently posted a video about the house.
WATCH:
Young has been clear: the money doesn’t matter as much as the principle and the history. This isn’t just a house to him. He lived in it in the mid-1970s. He got married on the front steps in the 1980s. He has spent thousands of his own dollars fighting to preserve it.
“Why would anyone want to tear this down? It’s like a statue,” Young told Phoenix New Time. “It is rich in history… It’s hard to believe that this house has been either here or where the manhole cover was for 124 years, and you know that should be, I would think somebody in the ASU, the city of Phoenix would say, ‘Hey, look, this is a huge mistake you’re making.’”
He added that he has seen no evidence the home cannot be incorporated or worked around in the campus plans. “I had seen no drawings, nothing to show that this can’t live in compliance with their plans.”
The case has already drawn national attention, with Rep. Tim Burchett blasting Arizona State University’s actions in a social media post.
“Imminent domain is theft. @ASU you should be ashamed,” Burchett wrote, condemning the university’s attempt to seize the property from the elderly homeowner.
Imminent domain is theft. @ASU you should be ashamed. https://t.co/pRS3e6aeyV
— Tim Burchett (@timburchett) June 11, 2026
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