Eminent Domain

Professor Bainbridge writes about Supreme Court oral arguments today in the Kelo case regarding eminent domain. ED is the government's right to seize land from private owners in exchange for fair market value where that land is to be used for the benefit of the citizens at large. Traditionally, this power was restricted to such things as taking land to build highways or install public works facilities. Lately, local governments have been stealing land...I mean taking land ("fair" value isn't typically truly fair) from private owners and giving the land to corporations such as Walmart, Home Depot, and Target. Why? Because the potential tax receipts from these mega-box stores far outstrips any puny trickle to be had from something like a private residence or a patch of farmland. The burgeoning government beast needs to be fed, and the property of private citizens is being taken to do so. Prof. Bainbridge explains how insidious and arrogant these policies are.

Coming from Mayor Daley's Chicago, these communistic programs (in one of the instances where the word is very apt) are an affront to our country's founding principles regarding private ownership rights.