Posted on 01/23/2006 12:58:16 PM PST by Mr. Silverback
Note: This commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley.
In 2003, government leaders in Sand Springs, Oklahoma, adopted what they called “Vision 2025.” The plan is billed as the “largest set of public redevelopment projects in the history of Tulsa County.”
The members of Centennial Baptist Church in Sand Springs call it something else: an “unholy land grab.” It’s a land grab for which we have the Supreme Court to thank. Part of “Vision 2025” calls for redeveloping “an abandoned industrial area” in Sand Springs for “big box retailers” and other stores. However, the area in question isn’t exactly “abandoned”: Not only is Centennial Church located there, but it’s also flanked by a McDonald’s and a muffler shop.
Yet officials decided that the only place a proposed “super center” could possibly go was—where else?—where Centennial Church presently stands. Since, as Pastor Roosevelt Gildon said, the church can’t afford to move elsewhere, it obviously does not want to sell. He asks, “If we leave, who is going to minister to the black community in Sand Springs?”
The government doesn’t care. It plans on using its powers of eminent domain to take the land from Centennial. As Reverend Gildon put it, “I guess saving souls isn’t as important . . . as raking in money for politicians to spend.”
Well, unfortunately, that’s good enough for the Supreme Court, because in its 2005 Kelo decision, the Court ruled that government can take property from one private party and give it to another if it thinks that the latter use would generate more tax revenue. It doesn’t matter if, like Centennial Church, the property is well-maintained and the owners do not want to sell. “Raking in money for politicians to spend” satisfies the Constitution’s requirement that such takings be for “public use.”
To put it mildly, Kelo is very controversial. Congress is looking for ways to overturn it or at least limit its reach. Someone who saw just how far Kelo could reach is UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh. Following Kelo, he wrote that “one predictable loser” in the aftermath of the decision would be nonprofit groups such as churches. After all, even a run-down residence pays more taxes than a church or a homeless shelter.
And that’s exactly what’s happened. Centennial Church was not the only church targeted by “Vision 2025,” however. Two other churches in the neighborhood were bought out. Charles Haynes of the First Amendment Center has pointed out that, even before Kelo, churches were already having these kinds of takings problems. After Kelo, we can expect “many more.”
In this sense, Centennial is the unfortunate canary in our legal coal mine. But just as Centennial is fighting back, so can we. In her dissent, Justice O’Connor wrote that the “beneficiaries” of Kelo will be those with “disproportionate influence and power in the political process.” It’s up to us as Christians to make it clear to our representatives that catering to those types of interests carries a steep political price.
This is also another reason why the make-up of the Supreme Court is so important. Kelo was decided by a 5-4 margin. It is hardly written in stone. If we act now, perhaps this “vision” of the future will not come to pass.
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Where is Jesse and the Rev. Sharpton?
Good story, thanks. The Kelo decision was bad.
I'm waiting for an Assemblyman or State Senator in Wisconsin to move on this, but I'm not holding my breath. THe Supreme Court left it open for the legislatures to pass new laws to curb eminent domain (takings) for commercial uses, but our legislators seem reluctant to accress it.
In fact, my own Republican Assemblyman (RINO) pussy-footed around the issue saying, "Well we'd have to make sure that any law would leave room for taking property for urban renewal..."
He's lost my support!
The Kelo decision was bad you say?
How dare you question the just rulings of the Supreme Court.
Surely you realize their rulings are based solely upon a strict reading and understanding of the U.S.Constitution (& well, "international law", personal politics, and that bad pickle eaten last night).
Next thing one knows, you will be questioning the Dredd Scott Decision!
Horrors!
LOL!
Media bias bump.
Kelo is BAD law, and IMO, unconstitutional law. While it would be a good thing for state and national lawmakers to write laws protecting citizens from Kelo, it would be better to strike it down once and for all. Local politicians are often a greedy and resourceful bunch.
I agree with you. Where are the liberals who would normally be screaming racism? Could it be that they don't really care about minorities, that they just use them for votes?
That's it and congress needs to start disciplining judges also. There is no way reading the Constitution there can be a justification of these abuses. The right to own & keep property except for the conditions set forth in the Constitution is clear. No corporate or even private individual should be able to have any government force someone to sell their land for that persons or companies profit.
But state and local lawmakers will not do this until people start giving them an eye for an eye tooth for a tooth retribution. Yes I mean if a city council member thinks it's fine for big business to steal land for Big Box Marts, industrial parks, etc, then it should be fine as well for the good citizens to bulldoze down the nice councilman's or lawmakers own home in kind. If you want a dog to stop messing then rub their noses in it so they remember the stench.
But people should not let party lines confuse them on this issue a GOP elected is just as likely to do this to you as a DEM. Greed knows no party loyalty no moral values.
And thus the socialist circumvention of property rights begins. John Locke (not to mention the Founders) are rolling in their graves right now. It is truly a sad situation. Thank you for the enlightening article.
-SoL1
Bump!
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