Top court favors eminent domain (Dozens of NJ towns thrilled! "Open season on neighborhoods!")

Bergen Record ^ | Friday, June 24, 2005 | JOHN BRENNAN

[proudofthesouth]

It's so strange. While the rest of the world is seemingly headed towards capitalism we are headed towards communism.

[Hank Rearden]

Politicians need to understand very clearly that they'll be hanging from lampposts if they don't get their minds right pretty damn quick.

[retrokitten]

"It gives local governments too much power," said Thomas Bonanno III, whose family-owned real estate group rents commercial space to 27 companies, employing more than 150 people in the area.

I don't think I would mess with a guy named Bonanno who runs a family owned business in NJ. But maybe that is just me.

[proudofthesouth]

Next comes finding the 2nd amendment unconstitutional so that there will be no armed rebellion.

From my cold dead hands.

[dead]

DU is up in arms about it. Unfortunately they are too stupid to apply their outrage to the already existing confiscatory schemes, like wealth redistribution tax policies, even though it's the same crap.

Boy, you got that right. Reading their responses just reinforced my opinion that there is a sizable majority of liberals in this country who don’t even realize that they are the party of wealth redistribution. The party of socialism and government seizures. Check out this gem:

I have no doubt that this disconnected chucklehead screamed bloody murder over “Bush’s tax cuts for the rich!!”

[Question_Assumptions]

I can only hope that Piscataway doesn't turn the last remaining local farm into high-density housing or a mall. Yeah, they say they want to condemn it to preserve open spaces. Yeah, with the recent giant Wal-Mart and Lowes shopping center built next door to it, I really believe that.

I'm afraid that government is probably going to have to run wild for a few years and step on a lot of people before Americans realize why the founders put the "public use" clause in that Amendment. On the other hand, they still haven't grasped how abused the Commerce Clause has become so maybe it's just wishful thinking on my part. But if they start treating poor minority neighborhoods the way they treated them in New Brunswick, things should be very interesting for New Jersey and for the Democrats.

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

"But Scott Mollen, an attorney for Herrick Feinstein, which has offices in Newark and Princeton, said that the court properly recognized that New London is an economically depressed town that needs to change with the times."

Lying scum. It was clearly stated and acknowledged by both sides in the case that the New London area confiscated under eminent domain was NOT economically depressed. It is a working-class neighborhood.

The issue is still open as to whether "economically depressed" (what does that mean, it isn't filled with million-dollar homes, two-million-dollar homes?) is reason enough to confiscate privately-owned property for economic reasons (as opposed to reasons of public use).

[wideawake]

Yup. This is a license for every crook in NJ to print money without having to give McGreevey a reacharound first.

[coloradan]

DU is up in arms about it.

Uh, except for the fact that they by and large aren't gun owners and don't think the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to own guns, except maybe for "sporting" purposes, but definitely NOT for military firearms owned by civilians to deter tyrnanny in government.

[sandbar]

This will perpetuate the 'no middle class' situation for sure. IMO anyway.

[TheForceOfOne]

Ah, what up Doc?

I'm here for your pwaperty wabbit, so don't twy any funny stuff or I'll bwast you!

[cynicalman]

Ive been away for a few days, how have the liberals reacted to this ruling?

If you mean the liberals in congress, they are reacting the same way the conservatives in congress are reacting. WITH JOY

[tumblindice]

You've got that right. To add insult to injury, in waiving our 5th Amendment *guarantee* against taking of private property for private use, cities will use TIF "tax increment financing" or some financing variant: in other words, the "benefit zone"--you & me, if our homes were or were not taken--will pay for the `re-development'.
Nice work if you can get it.
In other news, a spokesman for the Supreme Court of the USSA announced that they would be waiving, as well, our guaranteed rights under the 1st through 4th Amendments.
"And if you don't like it, well, that's hard cheese--appeal!"

http://www.triggerfinger.org/weblog/group/category/constitution/5th_amendment/index.jsp

[Sam Cree]

"I wandered over to DU (a stranger in a strange land moment for me). They are outraged by the decision. They are also disheartened that their "good liberal" justices voted for property confiscation while the "evil fascists" voted for property rights."

Sometimes the definition of a conservative is a liberal that got mugged. Which is pretty much what just happened.

But I have thought for awhile that lots of liberals don't really know what they think, haven't actually thought it through to the point where they realize that socialism is inherently totalitarian. Or understood that if government has great power, it might not always be used as they'd wish.

[RepatriatedTexan]

Got a link to the proposed TX legislation? Cities here in N. Texas are not shy about using E.D. for private development in the past. The Northeast Mall expansion in Hurst is one example that comes to mind..

[EQAndyBuzz]

"Ive been away for a few days, how have the liberals reacted to this ruling?"

N.I.M.B.Y

[mware]

My exact words when I heard this ruling, "Sweet Jesus, I live in New Jersey."

[dead]

You're right. I realize his post was not insane if one looks at the classic definition of "liberal."

It's only insane in the current context of American politics. That and the fact that the poster is a active contributor and participant in DemocraticUnderground, presumably supporting the party for which it is named.

[adam_az]

I didn't mean those kind of arms :)

My favorite gun is a sporting gun (O/U 12GA), but I've got others too.

[adam_az]

You and me both.