June 23, 2005
The end of private property
I am angry, sad, and disgusted. I literally feel a sickness in my stomach. I just want to absolutely scream.
Why? The Supreme Court has given their official blessing to private property being seized for other private parties under the guise of Eminent Domain.
Eric’s already given a much more reasoned response to this issue. So if you want reasoned discourse today, go see his post. But in my frame of mind, all I can do is rant.
First target: the left. Not long ago, we were debating whether property rights are inherent. The left has argued that private property rights are only as valid as “society” allows them to be. Well, it looks like they’ve proved their point. Now, they can all claim victory when poor elderly people are thrown out of their houses to make room for hotels and office parks. They can laugh and play in the streets when mom and pop hardware stores are razed to make room for Home Depot, and wonderful union-friendly stores like Walmart can secure land at low, low prices to open stores and crowd out local businesses. The left, who is the “champion of the poor and downtrodden”, has just given big business a huge wrecking ball to crush the poor and downtrodden. Good thing that your inability to respect private property is now going to be a major form of corporate welfare. Congratulations!!!
And to the right, we need to marshal your forces against this. I’ve got an idea! Let’s raze a couple churches! After all, they don’t pay any property taxes. It’s simple math that something is bigger than nothing, so if we replaced the razed churches with, say, strip clubs, bars, and adult book stores, it will be a huge boon to the local government tax receipts. Bulldozing a few churches (or simply converting them to strip clubs to save money) will probably gain quite a bit of support, huh?
This decision has be so upset I don’t know what to do with myself. Private property in this country was just killed. Free speech is nearly dead, and if this flag desecration amendment goes through, we can call the end on that. Freedom from government interference has gone the way of the dodo with interpretation of the interstate commerce clause. What do we have left? One of Dada’s commenters, in a play on the “Peak Oil” idea, has asked whether we’ve reached “Peak Liberty”? I fear that it’s all downhill from here.
The Unrepentant Individual linked with God, make way for CostCo!
T. F. Stern's Rantings linked with Supreme Court Did Away with Private Property Right
News, the Universe, and Everything linked with An absolute abomination...
Eric's Grumbles Before The Grave linked with More Reactions to Kelo
5 Comments
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
More Reactions to Kelo
A round up of the reactions to Kelo v. New London, today’s Supreme Court decision that dramatically extended the powers of government and shredded the 5th Amendment. My own response and my earlier post on the value of Originalism. Brad…
An absolute abomination…
CNN.com – High court OKs personal property seizures – Jun 23, 2005
…that’s all I can say about this ruling.
Those in power now should remember these words from the Declaration of Independence:That to secure these rights, Governments are instit…
Supreme Court Did Away with Private Property Right
In one fell swoop 5 men have taken it upon themselves to do away with nearly every individual right fought for since the Magna Charta.
It’s great to see widespread coverage of this issue across the blogosphere. Next step: take action to mitigate the effects of Kelo: join the Castle Coalition (CastleCoalition.org). The usual disclaimer: my only affiliation is the modest $ I’ve contributed over the years.
[...] al. v. City of Norwood, OH Yay, beef! Quick thoughts from others on Kelo Peak Liberty The end of private property Politic [...]