I thought we lived in America!
High court OKs personal property seizures
Majority: Local officials know how best to help cities
WASHINGTON (AP) -- -- The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that local governments may seize people's homes and businesses -- even against their will -- for private economic development.
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posted by Spinfly at 11:04 AM
6 Comments:
That is a somewhat disturbing decision, but on a good note...it was a 5-4 decision, so it's not strong.
I sound like such a lawyer. Take comfort in the following excerpt from O'Conner's dissent:
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who has been a key swing vote on many cases before the court, issued a stinging dissent. She argued that cities should not have unlimited authority to uproot families, even if they are provided compensation, simply to accommodate wealthy developers.
The lower courts had been divided on the issue, with many allowing a taking only if it eliminates blight.
"Any property may now be taken for the benefit of another private party, but the fallout from this decision will not be random," O'Connor wrote. "The beneficiaries are likely to be those citizens with disproportionate influence and power in the political process, including large corporations and development firms."
She was joined in her opinion by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, as well as Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.
First time I think most of us agree with Scalia and Thomas.
I think I'll go chain myself to my house over lunch.
I just hate that there is nothing that could be done about that. How many of those people have lived in their house forever. How many families have there whole lives wrapped up in those walls?
and why is my computer playing only songs by or written by the beatles today? is it because the owl sang Here Comes the Sun?
Spin, never forget:
"Everybody's got something to hide
'cept me and my monkey."
No and America never had a 5th amendment either.
I just hope that when they bulldoze my house they replace it with something that will benefit everyone, like a strip club.
The other thing that happened yesterday is that the House passed a proposed amendment which would make flag burning illegal. So good bye 1st and 5th amendment.
This however will not become an amendment, I don't think the supreme court would allow this to happen; the only way it could become illegal is if it fell under treason, which currently it does not.
Bloggers here might want to check out the discussion on Mt. Blogmore sometime. I've been over there for months, slugging it out under several other aliases, on a number of different topics. This is the only one where so far, every single person against this. In short, it's the only time I've ever seen everybody on that blog agree on something. Pretty cool.
(Now, do I have to say PLUG? Blogmore is not really my blog, but it is kind of one of my friend's blogs – the esteemed Bill Harlan.)
The name of the post on 6/23/05 is "Master of Their Domain." Check it out. (We have a link to Mt. Blogmore, right?)
There could be a movement starting, right here in Rapid City. We'll see, huh?
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