Posted on 02/18/2005 5:05:56 PM PST by BlackjackPershing
Yes it is. Excellent article.
I certainly do.
Yes, and now we're the Indians, being chased by what is still, at least nominally, supposed to be our own government.
The real Indians at least fought back.
Pod, They used Eminent Domain in Baltimore for both stadii. Both to transfer to individual owners. Corporate welfare at its best. Peace and love, George.
No.
Don't let the Hollywood version of "Indians" cloud your sight.
The Anishenabe tribe where I live deeded parts of their land to the US in an 1836 treaty. They were paid cash for the land. They kept the best portions for themselves.
Tribal members still live on their land. They've built nice homes, operate many businesses and are hard working individuals who really, really like free enterprise. A number of them are multi-millionaires.
Once a year they hold a giant three day pow-wow where they invite the community onto the reserve. There's story-tellers for children, traditional foods, dancing and other activities. Tens of thousands of people show up.
The power of eminent domain is specifically laid forth in the Fifth Amendment, which ensures that "private property" may not be taken "for public use without just compensation". This, again, obviously implies that private property may be taken for public use with just compensation.
The Constitutional issue here is whether attempting to improve the economy of a political jurisdiction qualifies as a "public use", and what standard should be applied to that qualification.
Eminent domain enactment should be handled with the same tenure and caution as the sentencing of the death penalty in an ultra liberal state. I like it when the big, powerful, unrestrained powers-that-be, decision makers in govt. get all rapped up with itself, diverting attention away from imposing actions on private citizens, and eating it's own young. From one who's work for them since '71, and will for some time to come. (I always hope for better, and do whatever I can to make that so)
Believe it or not I lived next door to the person you speak of. Regretfully she died last year. The story has somewhat a happy ending. She past away in her home with her sheep she called her children. I believe she willed the property to be used for a public park. Many good people in the area supported her and helped with the up keep even after a fire destroyed part of her home. She was a unique America figure in Willoughby.
Nope, that's a logic flaw you got there. It implies only that "just compensation" is necessary -- it does not mean that it is sufficient.
You did not read my post thoroughly. I understand eminent domain and the Fourth Amendment very well. I also know that the Constitution specifically lists the things that Congress is allowed to spend money on and I cannot find welfare or food stamps or medicare or medicaid or any of a hundred other programs on it anywhere.
Good Point AC, about "the Indians". Should, and could, the U.S. return all land it has unjustly seized to its rightful owners or heirs?.
It began with the passing of the 17th Amendment. Then when FDR threatened to pack the courts with socialist yes-men judges in order to force his agenda through, the thinking has been pretty much that the government can do whatever the hell it pleases and the Constitution really means whatever the government wants it to mean.
The key phrase here is "just compensation". If the prospective new owners were prepared to actually pay the true "fair market value" of the property, there would be no need for eminent domain. Eminent domain is a way to accomplish theft and fraud with the local politicos as your accomplices
No, that was Manifest Destiny.
Ask any American Indian about Eminent Domain. We know a lot about being on the losing side. Eminent Domain in the dictionary is under "Theft".
It's because of America's mushrooming population growth.
Which is the result of immigration.
A few more decades of this growth, and government will tax single-family private property out of existence, to replace it with more efficient population centers--high rise human ant hills.
I know. One of them was an obscenity from Parris the First. 'Pod.
The rest had been systematically taken by unilateral 'adjustments' to the original treaty, then through 'privatization', with the title to the land often arriving only days ahead of the notice of Sherrif's sale for 'back' taxes.
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