Despots In Power
( a case dealing with Eminent Domain)
Property Rigbts: For years governments have taken private lands with almost no thought to constitutional limits or the injustice of their acts. The nation's highest court may soon bring this to an end
It all depends on how the Supreme Court rules. On Tuesday, the court agreed to take Kelo v. New London, the case of a group of working-class homeowners who are fighting the city of New London, Conn. which has plans to demolish their houses to make way for a private development
The Institute for Justice in Washington documented more than 10,000 cases between 1998 and 2002 of governments abusing the power of eminent domain.
That power was intended at the birth of our republic to let authorities condemn private property for public - not private - use, but not without the just compensation required by the Fifth Amendment
If 10,000 seems excessive, consider that the Institute for Justice believes the number of actual seizures is far higher because there is no single source from which to gather the data. As Dana Berliner, a lawyer for the Institute of Justice, said, "Many, if not most, private condemnations go entirely unreported in public sources."
The Institute for Justice has done more than just try to count the instances of abuse. It has been actively advocating for the victims in New London, and in July asked the Supreme Court to take the case.
Should the appropriate ruling be made, governments' habit of taking property for use by other private interests is likely to be halted.
There would be no more cases like that in New London, where the city has tried to seize homes to help a commercial development that officials favor because it means more tax revenues.
"What galls me is the developer is taking my land so someone else can live here," said Susette Kelo, a nurse who has fought New London to keep the home she shares with her husband, who requires extra attention ~use of injuries from a truck wreck. ''I don't understand why I’m not as good as someone else to live here."
That sounds reasonable. Yet covetous city officials seem to have no trouble twisting the meaning of public use to suit their appetite for other people's money. This perversion of law was supported in a 4-3 ruling in March by the Connecticut Supreme Court
As the Institute for Justice has well documented, it's easy to see where that sort of mind-set leads - to an unchecked corruption of government power that turns more of the elderly, the poor, the middle class, the struggling, the successful and the young out of their homes and small businesses.
More than 200 years ago, the Supreme Court called eminent domain "the despotic power." The justices clearly foresaw and feared the wave of assaults on property rights that would spread through the 20th century and into the 21st
The current court could learn a lot from that court's justified fear. If it doesn't, there isn't a parcel of property across this country that will be safe from the greedy grasp of government