Sorry for the drought of updates lately. I have been talking time off from “the wire” to spend time with my newly enlarge family. I will get back in the swing of things in the coming weeks.
The only real point of this post is to make a brief comment on the recent Supreme Court eminent domain decisions. This ruling effectively destroys any distinction between public and private use concerning property. The decision is easily the worst ruling the Supreme Court has issued since the Roe v. Wade ruling in the 1970’s. The ruling will have the effect of giving special interest groups power over individual property owners (wither those owners are people or businesses.)
If Wal-Mart wants to open a new store and some pesky home owners get in the way… hey, just get the local city council to take the property. If religious groups don’t like a particular business (say liquor store or “news stand”), a little political clout will remove anything that offends. If the city doesn’t like your business… your gone. Because you don’t actually own your property, you just have permission to buy it… for now. It will hurt business, private enterprise, and personal civil rights. It IS one of the very reasons we (as a country) revolted from the British. And by any reasonable interpretation, it violates the fifth amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
In the Declaration of Independence, the founding fathers originally intended to put “life, liberty, and property” but decided that property might not be broad enough. At a time when our essential liberties are already being chipped away at; it is disturbing to see that with one stroke, 5 judges in Washington D.C., can remove a third of our nations founding equation.