All Posts Tagged With: "Kelo v. City of New London"
About Those Tax Breaks
Few things bug free-market economists as much as the attempts by local and state authorities to give tax breaks to certain firms in the name of “creating jobs.”
6Jan2010 | William L. Anderson | 3 comments | ContinuedBook Reviews – November 2007
- Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler: The Age of Social Catastrophe
by Robert Gellately Reviewed by Richard M. Ebeling
- Depression, War, and Cold War
by Robert Higgs Reviewed by Burton Folsom, Jr.
- Great Philanthropic Mistakes
by Timothy Sandefur Reviewed by George C. Leef - Elements of Justice
by David Schmidtz Reviewed by Aeon J. Skoble
Involuntary Municipal Annexation: The Ugly Truth
Suppose you received a letter informing you that the nearby city had decided to annex your property. Beginning the next year, you learn, your property taxes would double and no additional government services would be provided. If that happened, you may be sure that 1) your property had been assessed at a high value, and [...]
1Sep2007 | Barbara R. Hunter | 29 comments | ContinuedSprawl versus Coastal Beauty
Timothy Terrell is an associate professor of economics at Wofford College in South Carolina. “It’s a bad idea to turn the whole future of a region over only to people with money to make.” So says a local college professor, John Lane, in a recent editorial in one of our community newspapers. The article described [...]
1Jun2007 | Timothy Terrell | 0 comments | ContinuedCentral 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 | ContinuedBook Reviews – August 2006
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Among the Dead Cities: The History and Moral Legacy of the WW II Bombing of Civilians in Germany and Japan
by A. C. Grayling
Reviewed by Richard M. Ebeling -
How Progressives Rewrote the Constitution
by Richard A. Epstein Reviewed
by George C. Leef -
Saving Our Environment from Washington
by David Schoenbrod Reviewed by Jane S. Shaw
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The Quotable Mises
Edited by Mark Thornton Reviewed by William H. Peterson
Kelo 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 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.
The Supreme Court and the End of Limited Government
The Supreme Court ruling permitting governments
forcibly to transfer property through eminent
domain from one private party to another
for the sake of economic development did not come out
of the blue. Although the Takings Clause in the Fifth
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution specifies “nor shall
private property be taken for public use without just
compensation,” the “Court long ago rejected any literal
requirement that condemned property be put into use
for the general public” (Hawaii Housing Authority v. Midkiff,
1984, cited in the current case, Kelo v. City of New
London).
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.
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