Saturday, July 23, 2005

Backlash Against Kelo 

Kenneth Harney of the Washington Post reveals that Congress is getting in the act of trying to reverse the Supreme Court's eminent domain decision. First, the house adopted
by a vote of 365 to 33 a highly unusual resolution deploring the court's ruling. The House also voted 231 to 189 for a bill that would prohibit the spending of any federal housing, transportation or Treasury money "to enforce the judgment of the Supreme Court in the case of Kelo v. City of New London ." The court ruled that municipalities have the right to determine what constitutes a "public purpose" for eminent-domain-seizure purposes, even if that means taking privately owned real estate away from one set of citizens and giving it to private developers who promise to increase the local tax base or increase employment.

Next comes the Senate, which is expected to pass the
Protection of Homes, Small Businesses and Private Property Act of 2005, proposed by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.). That bill would declare that it is Congress's view that "the power of eminent domain should be exercised only for 'public use' as guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment, and that this power to seize homes, small businesses and other private property should be reserved only for true public purposes."

Under no circumstances, Cornyn said, should local eminent-domain powers "be used simply to further private economic development." The bill would prohibit all uses of federal funds in connection with any eminent-domain seizures for economic development purposes.
There is also plenty of activity in the states:

Legislators in more than two dozen states are moving to rein in, or at least clarify, the powers of municipalities to condemn and seize homes. Eight states -- Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Montana, South Carolina and Washington -- already impose restrictions in some form.

And in the state that initiated Kelo coming before the Supreme Court

Gov. M. Jodi Rell (R) has endorsed a moratorium on eminent-domain seizures, and called the issue "the 21st century equivalent of the Boston Tea Party: the government taking away the rights and liberties of property owners without giving them a voice. But this time it is not a monarch wearing robes in England we are fighting -- it is five robed justices at the Supreme Court in Washington."
Mr. Harney concludes the article with news about the Lost Liberty Hotel. It looks like there is hope after all.

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