"How Eminent Domain Ran Amok"

You're upset by the recent Supreme Court Kelo decision, which makes it OK for local governments to take your home or business under eminent domain, and turn it over to private investors who want to use your property to make a profit for themselves?

So is former National Law Journal editor Carla T. Main. She has a lengthy, fact-filled and thoughtful article, How Eminent Domain Ran Amok, at Real Clear Politics.

She tells us how the Supreme Court got to Kelo and how tough it's going to be to undo the damage Kelo's already doing to the property rights of Americans. But we can undo Kelo.

Here’s part of what Main says:

For many years, the subject of eminent domain, or “takings,” was the purview chiefly of academics and a narrow subspecialty of lawyers. But after June 23, 2005, when the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its 5–4 decision in Kelo v. City of New London, Conn., the term immediately found its way into heated debates in legislative chambers and the flying mud of electoral campaigns nationwide.

In Kelo, the Supreme Court ruled that it was constitutionally permissible for the city government to take a group of working-class homes from their owners and turn the parcel of land over to private parties for the purpose of economic development. Kelo thereby tapped into deep-rooted questions of money and class, its result threatening to violate that most sacred of American domains: the home.

The Kelo decision is testament to the expanding use of police power by the state for the advancement of private interests that are often in cozy relationships with local municipal governments.(Bold added - JinC)

The Florida Masochist has been sounding the alarm bell on Kelo since the day the decision came down. He’s provided his readers some shocking examples of local governments using Kelo for property confiscation.

I’m going to email FM and see if he’ll post with links to some of his earlier Kelo posts and update us with his latest.

If he does, I’ll post and link here.

Getting back to Main, her article is here.