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This Land Was Your Land, But Now It's My Land...

Posted on 02/25/2005 4:58:40 PM PST by .cnI redruM

Eminent Domain has become way too eminent. It's also now exercising way too much domain. The various layers of government in The United States are taking possession of entirely too much land that should be in the hands of private individuals. It has to be stopped somewhere.

Unrestrained eminent domain harms both citizens and the government in two vital ways. It obviously harms citizens whose land is taken. That's immediate and in the victim's face. The person once had land and now to paraphrase an old Jethro Tull Song "Farm On The Freeway," they just have a check and broken down pickup truck.

They say they gave me compensation... That's not what I'm chasing. I was a rich man before yesterday. And what do I want with a million dollars and a pickup truck? - Off of Crest Of A Knave.

The problem here also runs far deeper, for the individual in question. A number of our rights as citizens have far less power when we do not own the land we sleep on. Try aguing the 5th Amendment over a search of your property, if the government owns the land you live on. It's not a daunting task for a government agency to ask an allied government agency for a search warrant. A ban on religion in the public square is far worse when the public square is almost every parcel of land within the dominion. (Nevada, for example.)

Another problem occurs when the state owns all of this land, has to service it, and discovers there isn't any revenue coming in off their land taxes because they already own just about everything in site. Or, the people that own private property, within the domain of a government entity, are not wealthy enough to support that government in the style which it has become accustomed to.

This touched off a Supreme Court case over land siezures in New London, CT. Here, the municipal government of New London tried to buy up low income housing for the purpose of moving in rich corporation that would pay more taxes. It was throwing it's citizens out into the street to improve the municipal tax rate. Let's hope they can fight City Hall. Here's a discussion of the legal technicalities involved.

It was against this backdrop that Ohio Libertarian Chairman, Robert Butler, took to a lectern to decry the avaricious leviathon our rulership had become. He first described the justifications used by municipal governments in eminent domain land grabs.

"Butler said that the government's first step in exercising eminent domain is having property condemned or declared "blighted." Property that does not meet certain criteria laid down by local government can receive this designation.

He said homes in Lakewood were declared blighted for having only one bathroom or having an unpaved driveway. "Its scary to think about," Butler said. "

He also described how these governments were defrauding the Public Good clause of these eminent domain laws.

"The way the government improves the neighborhood is by taking your house away and giving it to someone else," Butler said.

The Chairman of The Ohio University Libertarians decried this as problematic for two reasons.

Corbett argued that there are "no incentives for (private corporations) to use the land responsibly" once they have been given a "free tab by the government."

In other words, eminent domain is an ever-flowing font of contractor waste, fraud, and abuse on the taxpayer bar tab. Mr. Corbett further elaborated.

The fight against eminent-domain abuses, Corbett continued, has elements of class struggle. "It's poor people that are going to lose their homes," he said. "There's definitely class components in the argument."

So not only does The People's money get wasted, but it gets wasted in a process that empowers the government to totally screw the most destitute and defenseless people in society. Does it really surprise anyone that The Sheriff of Nottingham was a public official and that Robin of Loxley gave to the poor as a member of the private sector until he could marry and claim his inheritance?

This Libertarian Party leader is out in the sticks speaking to college students and is the only person fighting the good fight on this. Where are GOP Congressmen and Senators who came to power as signators to The Contract With America.

He's trying to accomplish what the party now in power promised us in order to get elected. It's time for the GOP to return to its base on this issue and fight for the individual rights of our people. The Rockefeller Republican model of a more efficient welfare state is not a free America. It's time for Tom DeLay, Lindsay Graham and several other powerful and more economically Libertarian members of the GOP caucus to start pounding this issue


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; Politics; Society
KEYWORDS: ct; eminentdomain; gvotlarceny; libertarians; newlondon; propertyrights; what5thamendment
The Libertarians are dead-on with this one. Anyone who thinks the 5th amendment is something other than paper to wipe your butt with should pound the tables on this stuff.

I hope the USSC slaps New London, CT with enough in damages to make them lose money for chasing the poor out of their homes. Urabn renewal does not involve treating lower income people the way Gen MacArthur treated The Bonus Army just to boost an urban tax base.

1 posted on 02/25/2005 4:58:41 PM PST by .cnI redruM
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To: .cnI redruM

That New London case is going to be very interesting.

From what I heard on the radio today, the justices expressed skepticism about whether they have any jurisdiction over the matter.

But you never know from what they ask.


2 posted on 02/25/2005 5:09:04 PM PST by The Other Harry
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To: .cnI redruM
Lawyers and a handful of Justices should not be empowered to define our rights. The Fifth Amendment means what it says but defining and implementing what qualifies as public use and just compensation is the job of our State elected leaders. Rights belong to the people and the people need to be empowered to defend their own rights. Article Four Section 4 of the Constitution guarantees a republican form of government to each State. Lawyers are not a titled nobility exclusively empowered to define our rights. Our rights can best be protected by educated citizens electing Representatives who will respect the citizens rights. Errors committed by State legislatures are easier to correct than is Court precedent.
3 posted on 02/25/2005 5:28:31 PM PST by Libertarianize the GOP (Make all taxes truly voluntary)
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To: .cnI redruM

When I bought the 5 acres I sit on now, it took 4 days with a chain saw and machete to cut a trail back 200 feet from the road. I selected the trees I wanted, and those that had to go. I dug the drainage ditches with a shovel, spread the shell for the drive way, installed the well and septic system, often working late at night using the light from a Coleman lantern. When My Daughter was ready for a homestead, We did the same on the other half of the land.
There is no way to set a value on this land, it is priceless.
All around Me the bulldozers are knocking down trees for modern gated communities, to be filled with rows of identical houses surrounded by identical lawns of imported grass and trees, and, of course surrounded by gated walls and lit by blazing streetlamps.
Several times a month I am contacted by someone who wants to buy My land, I just tell them they can't afford it. I can sense the frustration My answer always causes them, because by their standards, this little Redneck homestead is a blight, a threat to their property values. In turn, they are a threat to My very way of life, I hope to Hell their damned walls and gates hold them in!
I wish I believed that I had protection under the law, but when someone really wants this place, they will simply buy the law. Hell, I always wanted to die here, anyway.


4 posted on 02/25/2005 5:28:43 PM PST by SWAMPSNIPER
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To: The Other Harry
If the USSC has no jurisdiction, why do we have a 5th amendment? This is a taking issue, not one of interstate commerce.
5 posted on 02/25/2005 5:37:51 PM PST by .cnI redruM ("I think that I have a fairly good understanding of what constitutes insider information," -Soros)
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To: Libertarianize the GOP
Which brings us to the graveman of the problem. We have a state supreme court who has interpreted said 5th amendment in an activist manner, to the benefit of the municipality. If the CT. Supreme Court defines the rule set on this puppy, expect the New London eminent domain taking to become a model of how cities enhance their finances.
6 posted on 02/25/2005 5:40:31 PM PST by .cnI redruM ("I think that I have a fairly good understanding of what constitutes insider information," -Soros)
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To: SWAMPSNIPER
>>>>There is no way to set a value on this land, it is priceless.

Which defines how I'm sure many New London residents felt about their lands as well. When the government can just yank all you've got away from you because the mood strikes them, it's a form of castration.
7 posted on 02/25/2005 5:41:57 PM PST by .cnI redruM ("I think that I have a fairly good understanding of what constitutes insider information," -Soros)
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To: Libertarianize the GOP
Rights belong to the people and the people need to be empowered to defend their own rights.

Totally concur with you. Anyone in office can be removed from office. The bigger problem is that elected officials have been allowed to run shotgun on the rights they think we should be granted while the public at large simply isn't paying attnetion until if affects them personally. By then it's too late.

The country almost elected two men for president of which neither had the moral aptitude to be a dog catcher. I sure wouldn't leave my dog with Gore or Kerry, much less trust them with my children and grandchildren's futures.

8 posted on 02/25/2005 6:18:54 PM PST by PistolPaknMama (Will work for cool tag line.)
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To: PistolPaknMama

Ignorant voters aren't the only problem. I live in a State where the Democrats were able to reverse two counts of the ballots for Governor due to the miraculous appearance of 1800 more ballots than there were voters who voted and then a final hand count of the real ballots plus 1800 unaccounted for ballots.


9 posted on 02/25/2005 6:53:51 PM PST by Libertarianize the GOP (Make all taxes truly voluntary)
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To: .cnI redruM

This is a frightening issue. Here in Georgia, the Republicans in the state senate introduced a bill that would have made it easier for government to grab land at the request of developers. After a large public outcry, led by talk show dude Neal Boortz, the bill was tabled.

If the Supreme Court sides with New London on this one, expect to see a lot more land grabs by local goverments for economic development. This can affect everyone - badly.


10 posted on 02/26/2005 6:24:44 AM PST by Buwan
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To: .cnI redruM
My condolences on your disappointment (your thread linked into today's dark-day SCOTUS thread here).
11 posted on 06/23/2005 1:16:52 PM PDT by NonValueAdded (Same stuff, different democRAT [this tagline rated PG-13])
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