Kelo done -as are your rights
Update: Today, I am ashamed of my country, my government, and the legal system (we don’t have a justice system). This is some scary stuff, folks. Freedom died a bit more. I honestly went to the parking lot, sat in the car and wiped tears from my eyes. Anger turned to sadness.
Property rights (like states’ rights) are officially dead in this country. SCOTUS blog:
Splitting 5-4, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that a local government may seize private property for purposes of profit-making private re-development, declaring that this constitutes a “public use” under the Constitution.
While the opinion by Justice John Paul Stevens said that a local government could not take homeowners’ property “simply to confer a private benefit on a particular private party,” the New London. Conn., project involved in this case was “a carefully considered development plan.” While the resulting project would not be open for use by the general public, the Court said, there is no literal requirement of that outcome.
Well, my copy of the fifth amendment says:
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
How a private development could possibly be justified as public use is beyond me. Worth noting that the conservative judges came down on the right side of things.
Fuckers.
Update: I am seriously pissed off about this. Apologies in advance for the obscenities you’ll see out of me for the next few days.
Fuckers.
Update 2: The AP story is here:
As a result, cities now have wide power to bulldoze residences for projects such as shopping malls and hotel complexes in order to generate tax revenue.
Update 3: Blake has some reactions. It is a national tragedy.
Update: Another quote:
Scott Bullock, an attorney for the Institute for Justice representing the families, added: ”A narrow majority of the court simply got the law wrong today and our Constitution and country will suffer as a result.”
Simply got it wrong is a bit of an understatement. How about willfully disregarded?
Fuckers.
Here’s the opinion, which I have not read yet due to the threat of having a conniption.
Update: Kevin:
Bill Von Winkle now has three choices: Submit, go to jail, or die. His legal options are finished.
And still this isn’t the straw that will break the camel’s back.
But it ought to be.
June 24th, 2005 at 2:53 pm
[…] deed, public ownership) or to extreme cases of blight. This is simply a terrible ruling. Say Uncle in understandably furious. […]
June 23rd, 2005 at 11:34 am
No apologies needed.
June 23rd, 2005 at 11:34 am
Everyone I’m talking to is exploding over this! I haven’t seen this kind of emotion over a Supreme Court issue…well…ever!
People that don’t even care about politics are in on it as well!
You can just read some of the quotes I’ve posted from people I’ve talked to in the past few minutes over this…
June 23rd, 2005 at 11:42 am
just caught this from blakes site, and was coming over here to see what you would say.
If this ever happens to me,….well I do not know what i would do.
June 23rd, 2005 at 11:50 am
I honestly don’t think I’ve been so angry over ANYTHING in a long long time. I don’t think this is going to end well. FUCKERS!!!!
June 23rd, 2005 at 11:57 am
Amazing ehh… I posted on it also…
Hope that old geezer kicks it before bush leaves office…
we need another voice for the constitution on the bench.
June 23rd, 2005 at 12:01 pm
My bad, it looks like the old geezer was on the people’s side…
June 23rd, 2005 at 12:03 pm
We are no longer a nation that is governed by a Rule of law. It is a Rule of men and I am beginning to realize that it has probably been that way for a long time. They are just more brazen about it now.
June 23rd, 2005 at 12:11 pm
All I feel is a sickness in the pit of my stomach.
June 23rd, 2005 at 12:49 pm
Let’s bulldoze the five justices’ homes to build gas stations.
June 23rd, 2005 at 12:59 pm
Sickening. Depressing. Maddening.
When the National Socialists took over in Germany, they declared much property to be used at the discretion of the government.
Isn’t this the same thing?
June 23rd, 2005 at 1:34 pm
This is sick. It’s OUTRAGEOUS. I’m just…nauseated. And absolutely furious.
June 23rd, 2005 at 1:35 pm
Sickening.
June 23rd, 2005 at 1:59 pm
Welcome to the Union of Socialist States of America — the U.S.S.A.
Weren’t we guaranteed “Life, Liberty, and Property” somewhere? Yet now we find ourselves with an anti-life, anti-liberty and now anti-property government.
June 23rd, 2005 at 2:07 pm
sounds like another revolution is in order…
June 23rd, 2005 at 2:39 pm
.. Les Jones’ idea is the best I’ve heard so far…
June 23rd, 2005 at 2:56 pm
I, for one, am done lubricating my ass for these nanny-state dickheads. Any candidate forum, any time I meet a politician, I am going to ask them what they’re doing about this. Motherfuckers.
June 23rd, 2005 at 3:46 pm
Looks like it’s time to buy the WASR-10.
And something with looong reach and a scope.
June 23rd, 2005 at 3:50 pm
I’m not at all happy about this either, but I’m not sure it warrants Jon and John going a Durbin/Godwin on it, either.
What’s intriguing to me is that Kennedy — normally on the conservative end of the spectrum — ruled with the majority. I’d like to see his concurring opinion (summation here.)
June 23rd, 2005 at 4:46 pm
Here’s a link to the html version of Kennedy’s opinion.
http://straylight.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/04-108.ZC.html
June 23rd, 2005 at 7:01 pm
Silly me, I noticed the increasing slippery slope into slavery…I just didn’t think it had a trap door.
Just think: First amendment: Nude dancing is free speech, but don’t critisize a congressman 60 days before an election. 4th Amendment: the TSA is searching everyone and the appraisal district owns your house. Second Amendment: We’re all felons.
About all that is left is quartering troops in our homes.
June 24th, 2005 at 10:54 am
OK, I’ve skimmed the rulings and read the dissents, and there are no two ways about it: this ruling sucks. Imagine that: the Supreme Court managed to get liberals, conservatives, and libertarians to agree on something.
June 24th, 2005 at 1:45 pm
You still don’t get it. The Constitution explicitly says that they can take anything you own anytime they deem necessary. And even if it didn’t the fact that the Constitution was imposed on people who were not party to it implicitly asserts unlimited power over them from the beginning. This is no betrayal of the Constitution, this is the *flowering* of the Constitution.
June 24th, 2005 at 8:01 pm
Rigts of way are very important and exits as part of the common law.
October 26th, 2005 at 6:58 pm
I Used To Own A House
You and I no longer own homes. We occupy them. We pay the bank every month for the privilege of living there as long as the government wants to let us.