Eminent Domain - Dissenting Opinion

• “[n]ow that we have authorized local legislative bodies to decide that a different commercial or industrial use of property will produce greater public benefits than its present use, no homeowner’s, merchant’s or manufacturer’s property, however productive or valu­able to its owner, is immune from condemnation for the benefit of other private interests that will put it to a ‘higher’ use.”
  
  - Justice O’Conner’s dissent in Kelo

Justice O’Conner has written an excellent dissent in Kelo. O’Conner’s dissent highlights just how dangerous the idea of “private eminent domain” is to the rights of every American. Essentially, the majority’s ruling says that so long as the legislature determines that the public would benefit from the taking, then the courts will not interfere.

One of the petitioners in this case was trying to save a home that she was born in (in 1918) and had been in her family for over 100 years. My family lost property to eminent domain (so a major road could be built), but this woman is about to lose her family home so that Pfizer can build a facility on the site. While losing a family home to a road project is difficult, I would imagine that all of us would be much more upset about seeing a Wal-Mart sitting where our family homes used to be.

Eminent domain, when used appropriately, is a necessary evil in our democracy. When the public good demands a new highway, the government must be able to complete the project, so long as they fairly compensate landowners. However, eminent domain should not be an excuse for multi-million dollar corporations to be able to force families out of their homes, all in the name of increasing their own bottom line.

The majority argues that the “incidental” benefits to the public should be enough to meet the requirement of “public use” contained in the Fifth Amendment. This reasoning is faulty in that there is no logical end to it. So long as the legislature is intelligent enough to come up with a “benefit” to the public when drafting the bill, the courts will be powerless to stop the taking. This is an extremely dangerous path to tread, and leaves the legislature as the final arbitrator of all takings. There is something inherently un-democratic about saying that the legislators of every state have the final say in distribution of private property, and can divvy it up as they see fit.

If a corporation wants to build on a site badly enough, it should have to pay someone what that person demands; and if that person does not want to sell at any price he should have the right to refuse to sell. I think that one of our greatest founding fathers summed it up best when he said:

“[T]hat alone is a just gov­ernment, which impartially se­cures to every man, whatever is his own.” - James Madison

Eminent Domain

The Supreme Court's decision in Kelo v. City of New London has generated an enormous amount of controversy, and people who usually don't talk about the law are paying close attention to it.

My immediate reaction to this decision is one of complete disgust. The decision basically allows private businesses to buy out families, and even smaller businesses, all in the name of increasing tax revenue for local municipalities. This is the kind of thing that goes directly against the very principles which our nation was founded upon; it is a great defeat for individual rights.

Over the weekend I am going to read the opinion and try to post some excerpts from both the opinion and the dissent (which I have heard is very well-written).

Here is a link to the decision:

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=US&navby=case&vol=000&invol=04-108

An Adobe version can be found at:
http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/opinions.html

Partisanship and Filibusters

• “Complaints are everywhere heard from our most considerate and virtuous citizens…that the public good is disregarded in the conflicts of rival parties, and that measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority.”

- Federalist No. 10 (Alexander Hamilton)

There is nothing more dangerous to the safety of a democracy than when the rights of the minority are ignored by the majority. One of the things that most concerned our Founding Fathers was the ability of a single faction to take control of the government and use it to further their own goals, without due consideration for the public good.

Though I have generally supported many actions of the Republican majority in Congress, the so-called "nuclear option" that was being proposed in the Senate was extremely troubling to me. The mere possibility that the Senate would have adopted such a measure is a major cause for alarm. The filibuster safeguard is there for a reason, and while it can be a major obstacle to progress (see Strom Thurmond's legendary filibuster of Civil Rights legislation) it is an indispensable tool to help protect the minority.

While I think people deserve a vote, the limited use of such filibusters is sometimes the only way that the minority can protect its interests. I have yet to hear a really good argument for doing away with the filibuster, and I would love to hear from anyone who thinks they have one.

Welcome

Welcome to my blog! This is my first foray into the blog experience, so I apoligize if things are a little slow getting started.

I've been contemplating the idea of doing one of these for a while, and I finally gave in after reading through a number of the Federalist Papers (hence the name of the page). I don't in any way expect that my commentary will be as enlightened or well-articulated as the letters written by Hamilton, Madison and Jay, but I think that there are not enough people in America speaking out about government. I hope that people will enjoy reading my observations on politics and related issues, and I really want people to post comments and observations of their own.

I'm going to try to operate this site by placing some kind of quote or summary of an issue, and include my thoughts on it. This may change in the future, but its the best I can think of right now.

With that in mind, let's give this a shot!