June 24, 2006

FEEDING THE WAHOOS TABLE SCRAPS:

Bush restricts eminent domain (Jennifer Loven, 6/23/06, The Associated Press)

President Bush ordered Friday that federal agencies cannot seize private property except for public projects such as hospitals or roads. The move occurred on the one-year anniversary of a controversial Supreme Court decision that gave local governments broad power to bulldoze people's homes for commercial development. [...]

Many critics — particularly in the West — see the decision as a dangerous interpretation of the "takings clause" in the Constitution's Fifth Amendment, which allows the government to seize property for public use with just compensation. They have argued such takings are an unjustified governmental abuse of individual rights.

Cities, though, see the takings power as an important tool for urban-renewal projects crucial to revitalizing cities.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, welcomed Bush's executive order. But since the federal government has only a limited role in such projects, he said Congress must do more.

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 24, 2006 9:27 AM
Comments

Major newspeak alert!

Read the article to see how taking land for another private use is blurred into a "public purpose."

Here's an idea for the petty tyrants. We already know the "diversity" is a compelling state interest. Surely there would be a public purpose is breaking up non-diverse neighborhoods.

Why not simply use the eminent domain power to sieze property for the public purpose of promoting diversity? We can't let mere property rights stand in the way of advancing compelling state interets.

Posted by: Lou Gots at June 24, 2006 12:34 PM

We certainly should have done so during Reconstruction.

Posted by: oj at June 24, 2006 12:39 PM

Lou: It's already been done. See Midkiff.

Posted by: David Cohen at June 24, 2006 12:53 PM

David: Thank you very much. Midkiff had to do with Central-American style, anti-oligopoly land reform in Hawaii.

While we should be made uncomfortable by Midkiff's approval of eminent domain taking to "correct market failure," the specter I have raised is more insidious than that.

What if the "public purpose" of the taking is some sort of racial quota? In that case, the owner of real estate is dispossessed because he happens to be of the wrong color, in favor of one who happens to be of the right color.

Posted by: Lou Gots at June 25, 2006 1:19 AM
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