All Posts Tagged With: "eminent domain"
Central Planning Comes to Main Street
Steven Greenhut (sgreenhut@ocregister.com) is senior editorial writer and columnist at the Orange County Register in Santa Ana, Calif. He is author of Abuse of Power: How the Government Misuses Eminent Domain. A casual reader could be forgiven for skimming through a front-page Los Angeles Times article from February 12 and thinking that the story was [...]
1Aug2006 | Steven Greenhut | 1 comment | ContinuedKelo v. City of New London: Do We Need Eminent Domain for Economic Growth?
The Supreme Court continues to give politicians free rein to trample the rights of individuals except in cases where the justices think that the rights are fundamental. Property rights are not regarded as fundamental, and the Court will accept almost any justification, no matter how nave and intellectually feeble, for government encroachments on them.
1Nov2005 | George C. Leef | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Tyranny of Local Government
Thanks to the recent decision rendered by the Supreme Court in Kelo v. City of New London, citizens across the nation have a new reason to fear government.
1Nov2005 | Paul Messino | 1 comment | ContinuedThe Dangers of Eminent Domain
In Kelo v. City of New London the United States
Supreme Court greatly weakened the constitutional
protections that property owners have enjoyed
against governments wishing to seize private property.
This weakening is unfortunate.
A Popular Insurrection on Property Rights
The property rights issues that arise constantly in
modern life are always difficult and often
obscure. Most ordinary people understand the
importance of zoning restrictions and environmental
protection in their daily lives.They are also keenly aware
that the state exercises its eminent domain power whenever
it condemns land for a post office or a public highway.
But in general they rightly feel a little intimidated
if asked to understand the inner workings of a legal system
that is dominated at every turn by an impenetrable
jargon that even trained lawyers find it
hard to manipulate.
Protecting Property in a Post-Kelo World
Two years ago, when I began writing a book,
peoples eyes would glaze over when I told them
the subject was eminent domain, the power of
the government to take property by force on just
compensation to the owner. Rarely could I mention the
subject without having to explain it in detail, and
incredulity was a typical response to the realization that
government now takes property for private uses rather
than for the public uses allowed by the
Constitution.
Property Protects
Opponents of authentic liberalism have long held that the state must be powerful enough to protect the powerless from the ravages of private property. The Supreme Court’s decision in the Kelo eminent-domain case last summer shows what that principle is worth. To recap, the city of New London, Connecticut, condemned 15 working-class homes for an [...]
1Sep2005 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedUnjust Compensation
When discussing eminent-domain horror stories with government officials and other defenders of the practice, one will often hear a refrain of this sort: “None of this is any big deal, really, because the victims of eminent domain must be made financially whole, under the law.” But, just as the Constitution’s clear requirement that government only [...]
1Mar2005 | Steven Greenhut | 1 comment | ContinuedYo, Brooklyn! Get Real About Politics and Sports
Brooklyn, New York, needs a reality check on sports—whether it comes to the borough’s past with baseball’s Dodgers, or its possible future with basketball’s Nets. Even though the Dodgers left for Los Angeles almost a half-century ago, for many that move still hangs like a dark cloud over Brooklyn. Some people trace the borough’s economic [...]
1Feb2005 | Raymond J. Keating | 1 comment | ContinuedThe Dark Secrets of Rail Trails
Kirk Teska is a freelance writer, patent attorney, and adjunct professor of law. Linda Rowley lives in rural western Massachusetts on her family’s homestead in a house built in the 1750s. She remembers trains running through the property when it belonged to her great-grandparents. But long before she took possession, the tracks were removed. Nevertheless, [...]
1Dec2004 | Kirk Teska | 6 comments | ContinuedTaking Liberties . . . and Properties
It’s happened again. A local government is condemning a group of homes so the land can be turned over to the developer of a shopping center. Why? The shopping center will rake in more tax revenue than the homes do. The use of eminent domain to raise money for government is catching on. We’ve seen [...]
1Jan2004 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedLaw and Property: The Best Hope for Liberty?
There is little left of the conventional protections for individualism in the modern world. Whatever theoretical virtues there may be in democracy (and there aren’t many1), in practice it has disintegrated into a struggle among self-regarding interest groups, mediated by government, over wealth that is exclusively created by private individuals.
1Jul2003 | Norman Barry | 1 comment | ContinuedThe Blight of Eminent Domain
My sister-in-law came back from a recent trip to Poland outraged at how that former communist country treats its citizens. An acquaintance of hers owns a beautiful home in the Polish countryside and is now involved in an ugly court battle because a government official was so impressed with the property that he began the [...]
1Sep2002 | Steven Greenhut | 8 comments | ContinuedThe Obstacle Course of the Takings Clause
Timothy Sandefur is a contributing editor of Liberty Magazine. The Fifth Amendment holds that government may not take “private property . . . for public use without just compensation.” The Framers knew that seizing a person’s property always violates his rights, but providing for government payment would at least protect citizens from the worst sorts [...]
1Jan2002 | Timothy Sandefur | 1 comment | ContinuedGovernment Versus the Environment
When the subject is the environment, the public perception is that a resource of such importance can only be adequately safeguarded by the benevolent, all-encompassing hands of the government. Whether that protection comes in the guise of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Forest Service, the Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, or any of [...]
1Feb1998 | Russell Madden | 18 comments | ContinuedThe True Takings Reform Imperative
Mr. Kochan is an adjunct scholar with the Mackinac Center for Public Policy in Midland, Michigan, and author of the Center’s recently published report Reforming the Law of Takings in Michigan. In recent years, a takings revolution has been occurring, with hundreds of reform bills introduced in state legislatures and with historic legislation pending in [...]
1Feb1997 | Donald J. Kochan | 0 comments | ContinuedPrivate Property Ownership
Mr. Bellerue is a real property analyst specializing in eminent domain. According to the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, no person shall be “deprived of life, liberty or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.” This clause, known as the eminent domain reservation, [...]
1Jan1995 | Al Bellerue | 25 comments | Continued-
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