Monday, October 03, 2005
Supreme Domain
The Supreme Court ranks got a little “thin” recently with the death of Rehnquist and retirement announcement of O’Connor. Not for long, though. The court is “plumping back up” with the swearing in today of John Roberts. Now, Bush has nominated Harriet Miers to replace O’Connor. Sounds good, but…
Where does this leave “Eminent Domain”? Do all property owners in this supposedly great nation still have to live with that sword of Damacles over our heads, worried that governments from whom we ask more and more will take our property for redevelopment to generate more tax dollars to give us what we ask for? It seems so.
An item on the Drudge Report today shows that “Eminent Domain” is being wielded as freely and broadly as ever. The article, titled “Florida City Considers Eminent Domain,” states that Riviera Beach Mayor Michael Brown (no, not that Michael Brown) sees “Eminent Domain” as one of the “‘tools that have been available to governments for years to bring communities like ours out of the economic doldrums and the trauma centers.’”
Well – yeah – he does have a point. Eminent Domain has been the big club used in the past to mow down anyone who “stands in the way of progress.” Does that make it right?
In an article I posted to Townhall.com titled “Blighted Neighborhoods,” I talked about the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Kelo vs. New London, Connecticut, on Thursday, June 23rd 2005 (a day that, as FDR once said, “will live in infamy”). Mayor Brown cites this very decision to justify displacing about 6,000 poverty-level residents to build “a billion-dollar waterfront yachting and housing complex.” All in the name of creating jobs.
Yeah – right – jobs.
Hopefully, the Institute for Justice will join the fight. Dana Berliner, senior lawyer with the Institute for Justice, stated that Mayor Brown’s plans are typical “‘pie in the sky’ expectations” for such redevelopments. A more realistic scenario will be that the 6,000 displaced residents will huddle in some other corner of the county or state or country until more local officials decide to redevelop that spot.
Do you see the pattern emerging here? Moving poor people around to create more tax revenue to provide assistance to those poor people is just a shell game.
As I stated in that previous article, we created this mess through our votes and by demanding that the government pay for our needs. The money they pay us has to come from somewhere. It seems that Mayor Brown plans to take it out of the houses of the poor in Riviera Beach, Florida.
All in the name of jobs, progress, and increased tax revenue.
We created this monster. Let’s go to the polls and kill it. And – oh, yeah – by the way, let’s make sure the next Supreme Court Justice sworn in respects our property rights more than Mayor Brown does.
Copyright © 2005 A.C. Cargill
