More Kelo ripples
The House passed a bill that would deny federal funds to any city or state project that used eminent domain to force people to sell their property to make way for a profit-making project such as a hotel or mall..
At the bottom of the article is this:
In the roll call on the House amendment, 192 Republicans voted for and 31 against, with 39 Democrats voting for and 157 against. The lone independent, Rep. Bernie Sanders (Vt.), voted against.
The Democrats voted overwhelmingly against. This will be another political issue that they will lose on. Smijer is spot on:
This is an issue for Democrats, because the abuse in Kelo abuse represents the benefit of the rich and powerful at the expense of the unempowered.
Let’s all get on the right side of this thing.
Locally, Stacey Campfield notes that many local legislators are drafting their own anti-eminent domain bills. Good.
More states are looking into protections and eight states already have such protections in place:
At least eight states — Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, South Carolina and Washington — already forbid the use of eminent domain for economic development unless it is to eliminate blight.
And Senate candidate and local Rep. Beth Harwell has come out against Kelo.
July 3rd, 2005 at 3:25 pm
This bill is a bad idea, much like the way highway funding (why is the federal government funding highways anyway?) requires setting of the legal drinking age. It’s federal encroachment on state’s legislative domain. As you note, eight states have prohibitions in place and local governments are working to do the same thing. This is proof the federal system works and that things can indeed be handled locally.