Dann Todd's 'Dain Bramage'^**

The Death of Private Property Rights

The Supreme Court has finally weighed in on the subject of local governments seizing private property and then transferring the ownership of that property to another private party for further development. Their decision legitimizes and legalizes this form of theft.

The question at hand was whether or not New London, CT could seize private property, 'compensate' the previous owners, and then transfer the property to another private party that plans on building an office structure. The city of New London justified their action by stating that the office building would bring in more tax revenues and that the increase revenues were good for the 'community'.

In a 5-4 decision, Justice John Paul Stevens wrote that:

"The city has carefully formulated an economic development that it believes will provide appreciable benefits to the community, including _ but by no means limited to _ new jobs and increased tax revenue,"

With this decision, all private property is now at risk. If you own a house, a piece of vacant land, or an old manufacturing facility, your local government can now seize that property and transfer it to someone else for further development.

What if you knew that real estate values were rising in your area and wanted to hold on to your property as an investment? Too bad for you. Rather than being able to get $500,000 in 5 or 10 years, your local government can compel you to sell it at THEIR estimation of its current market value. So much for real estate speculation.

Justices O'Connor, Thomas, Scalia and Chief Justice Rehnquist dissented.

"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."

The only legitimate purpose of government is the establishment, preservation, and extension of individual liberty. Subordinating individual liberty to "community benefits" will only cause increased concentrations of wealth and expanding poverty. It is socialism. And socialism kills; slowly, inexorably, inevitably.

Robb Allen has some thoughts and some excellent advice; this is an issue worth writing to your Congresscritters about.

Hubris has the essence of this issue.

by Dann 

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