Sustainable Development, Smart Growth and Kelo: Organized theft by any name

Canada Free Press ^ | Monday, July 4, 2005 | Tom Deweese

[FReethesheeples]

Bump. Thanks for this post. Bravo!

It is great to see Americans so aware of, & energized in defense of, private property rights by addressing threats, this terrible precedent (Kelo v. New London), and becoming aware of the downside of activist Judges. I have been concerned with both of these related issues for about a decade. I even had brief, separate, conversational encounters with two of the "good" Justices (Scalia & Thomas) in the Kelo case about 6 or 7 years ago re: "The Takings Clause" of the 5th Amendment designed to protect private property from arbitrary seizures, but providing for Eminent Domain for certain "public use" (NOT "public purpose") . It was clear they were anxious to see some good cases walk toward them. I doubt if they would have predicted the bizarre outcome in Kelo, though.

For those of us who are deeply concerned with protection of Private Property from improper application of Eminent Domain in contravention of the Original Intent of the Founders in the 5th Amendment's Takings Clause, I am registering a warning or a concern:

I think AG (& potential USSC Nominee) Alberto Gonzales is very weak on Private Property Rights and lacks an understanding of orignainl intent of the 5th Amendment's Takings Clause (Eminent Domain) based both upon some cases when he ws at the texas Supreme Ct. (e.g., FM Properties Operating Co. v. City of Austin, 22 S.W.3d 868 (Tex. 2000))

and, more recently and significantly, upon his NOT having joined in the Kelo case on the side of property owner. My understanding ws that he had sided with the League of Cities against Kelo while WH Counsel.

As some have frequently observed, he certainly believes in a "Living Constitution" and is NOT a strict constructionist or an Originalist, but rather tends toward the Activist side, per National Review Online and others.

He has been sharply critical of Priscilla Owen in some Texas Supreme Ct. decisions when they were both on that Ct. as Justices, and he has been quoted as being sharply criticial fo Janice Rogers Brown, including being quoted by People for the American Way in their ultra-leftist propaganda.

[Political Junkie Too]

Do you remember the 1998 story of the group of Russian Orthodox nuns who went before the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District to get a permit to build a convent in the coastal hills of San Mateo County? The District denied their request and then declared eminent domain to take away their property for a park. Public outcry was so loud that the board reversed themselves two weeks later. The nuns quietly sold their land several years later.

Here are some links from 1998:

Vote to condemn land ignites firestorm

Land district looking to coast Vote planned for plots west of mountains

Sisters Fight To Build Convent On Scenic Property

Nuns face new form of repression

-PJ

[Alexander Rubin]

Never heard of that. Though that's horrible.