dime a dozen
I cannot believe this recent Supreme Court ruling. I read it yesterday and was beside myself.
From the NY Times article:
“Promoting economic development is a traditional and long accepted function of government,” Justice Stevens said, adding, “Clearly, there is no basis for exempting economic development from our traditionally broad understanding of public purpose.”
It may be a “traditional function” in the sense that government always tries to meddle constructively with the economic system, but government forays into that area have almost always been inefficient and fraught with mediocrity.
Not to mention the fact that the ruling opens the door for all sorts of governmental abuses. I can understand the standard liberal position that, “Oh, no one will ever go that far…” but you have to come down from your fuzzy pink cloud sometime and wake up to the reality of human nature coupled with that kind of power. Fourth Amendment anyone?
Justice O’Connor, in dissenting, sums up the possibilities:
“Under the banner of economic development, all private property is now vulnerable to being taken and transferred to another private owner, so long as it might be upgraded.” […] She added: “The specter of condemnation hangs over all property. Nothing is to prevent the state from replacing any Motel 6 with a Ritz-Carlton, any home with a shopping mall or any farm with a factory.”
I sincerely hope the ruling will be overturned.
/es/\\e
I am equally affronted by this ruling. America is slowing sliping away.
yeah… when things are done for the benefit of the city and not the benefit of the citizens it’s time to start getting seriously worried.
i heard this ruling on npr this morning and wanted to make a post about it, but you’ve beaten me to it. all i can thing about is how enraged and furious i would be if the government took my family’s land away from me. that is MY land. i’d never sell it. listening to one of the displaced families talk about how their grandfather built their house and now they will lose it almost made me burst into tears on the way to work.
sorry to comment uninvited…
i actually read this on msn 2 days back and was totally enraged, though I’m not an american nor do I own property here.it’s frustrating that it’s so blatant and it’s coming from the country’s top ruling body.it’s like watching a really sad movie where you would want to twist the plot around but can do nothing about it.
I thought you might feel the same, having more of a vested interest in residence, property, houses and the like than the average jane.
One response to the general outrage circulating on the internet is here:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/alchemi/473581.html
But all the counterarguments I can glean from the pastiche of articles linked to seem pretty weak compared to the more straightforward and obvious objections to the ruling.