Posted on 02/03/2016 6:08:39 AM PST by Kaslin
Donald Trump is running a pretty successful presidential campaign saying that he wants to "Make America Great Again."
But he seems to have very little interest in what exactly it is that makes America great.
This paradox is very much on display when Trump talks about eminent domain, the authority given to government in the constitution to take private property for public use.
Trump says, "Eminent domain is wonderful."
The Fifth Amendment to our Constitution tells us: "No person shall be ... deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation."
The key question is, what is "public use"?
George Mason University law professor Ilya Somin sums it up as follows: "Until the early 20th century, most courts interpreted those words to cover things such as roads or power lines -- projects owned either directly by the government or by private owners who have a legal obligation to serve the entire public, such as utility companies."
"By the 1950s, however," Somin continues, "The original meaning of 'public use' had been largely abandoned. Legal elites came to believe that government planners should have nearly limitless authority to take property to promote growth and combat blight afflicting the urban poor."
Donald Trump includes himself among these "legal elites" who think government should be free to confiscate private property and turn it over to some private developer who proposes a project, claiming it will create jobs.
This is what happened in the Kelo v. City of New London decision in 2005, when the Supreme Court sided with the city of New London, Connecticut, which seized property to make way for a commercial development anchored by a new research facility for Pfizer Corporation.
One of the property owners, Susette Kelo, sued the city, claiming this seizing of private property for a private development was not "public use" as intended in the constitution.
The court sided with the city, 5-4. The two solid conservatives on the Court at the time, Anton Scalia and Clarence Thomas, sided with Kelo, who was represented by the libertarian public interest law firm Institute for Justice.
Donald Trump told Fox News' Neil Cavuto, regarding the Kelo decision, "I happen to agree with it 100 percent."
It sounds so nice to say a project can bring jobs and development. But can we really allow, in our country, the forcing of private owners off their property because a government entity, working with a private developer, claims there is potential in some new development there?
We have proof in the pudding with Kelo, where the owners were removed and then the project fell through. The place is now an abandoned lot.
Washington is filled with special interests looking for favors, claiming their business project is in the "national interest." Business people such as Donald Trump, who think they know what is best for everyone, can be free to buy out whomever they want. But how can we put the force of government behind them and kick people out of their homes? This is what makes America great?
Back in 1993, Donald Trump tried to buy Vera Coking's Atlantic City home to use the property for his casino development. She refused to sell. So New Jersey confiscated her property. Coking was represented by the Institute for Justice, and defeated Donald Trump in court. Coking kept her home.
Cato Institute economist Mark Calabria estimates that since the Kelo decision in 2005 more than 1 million households "have been displaced by government action." Of these households, Calabria estimates 29 percent were black and 32 percent households in poverty.
What makes America great is respect for law and respect for all private citizens and their property.
We need leaders who understand and care about this. This is what will make America great. Not unprincipled dealmakers looking for wealth and power.
I guess that makes it no different than Trump's limousine parking lot, then. You showed me!
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The end result is the same - the eminent domain take over of private property - Keystone on a multi state scale so dwarfs a parking lot. So fail if you are against eminent domain but love the keystone pipeline. Cognitive dissonance on your part.
Bad when Trump does it, but completely ok when the government does it. No expert on the subject, but if/when Trump did it, he built something on the property and gave people jobs, unlike what the current lot of scumbags does.
Kind of like the ongoing land grab’s all over the country. Kind of like what’s going on in Oregon and all the uranium that Obama and Clinton sold to the Russians.
Lets forget about all the other stuff that these career politicians, the so called elite and their corporate donors have been doing to us since FDR.
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The pipeline is exporting fuel to China from Canada. How is that good for the USA?
You’re being completely dishonest. It was not a “crack†house at the time. It was the home of an old woman who wanted to live in peace in her own house.
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It was a boarding house - code name for hooker den in Atlantic City. I guess once step up from a crack house.
Yes, the old BS that it was ganny’s house. It was a hooker/crack den aka boarding house to make it sound respectable.
“You bought the left wing propaganda, the home was actually a 18 room boarding home”
I searched the internet and found that it was a 29 room property. Please post a link to it being “crime infested”(Your post #96). Thanks.
Actually the home was demolished in 2014, Carl Icahn, yes that guy, bought at auction for 500K, he promptly leveled the 18 room boarding house.
The home was not some "old granny's" two bedroom beach bungalow, it was a crime infested 18 room boarding house. (private property is still private property, I am just pointing out what it actual was. Seems too many people distort the facts to fit a narrative(Trumpinator, this was not against you, just the people who distort that this was some old lady's home, it wasn't))
Impressive! Your post full emotional hyperbole is that of an overachiever.
I tend to agree with you about Kelo and was appalled by the decision.
Otoh, I do see Trump's point, too, and one could easily see his offer as a Godsend for her, her family and for the area.
She won her fight and she and her son lost out on a much larger payday.
Who knows how things would have turned out had she taken Trump's initial offer instead of what GuvCo gave them.
None the less, no election is worth doing damage to yourself.
From one soul to another? Letting your emotions condemn you via false witness and the rest is just poor long-term planning.
Time is way too short for that sort of thing.
I figure we're supposed to say something, so I said something...for what it's worth.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vera_Coking
Take a good look at the picture of Vera Coking’s house here—after Bob Guccione built a parking garage on three sides of it.
I was going by memory, the place wasn’t exactly a perfect crime free place, so to a person like me, who lives in a nice area, it was a crime infested. But to urbanites who live in bad neighborhoods, it probably wasn’t so bad
It is all perspective
And Atlantic City is a crime den like Camden, Newark, or Detroit
You can't have it both ways. Even the spin that the keystone pipeline is some sort of self defense initiative is them trying to justify their cognitive dissonance.
The people take Kelo and apply their own fears of the big govt and actually distort reality. I am against all forms of govt power but reality is one thing and pie in the sky reality is another. And yes there are abuses - even to the best of laws.
Why do you believe during a national emergency the oil/fuel would have to be exported?
By allowing the export of oil/refined products it keeps the oil industry working in this country or Canada.
You simply cannot shut down oil production then in a national emergency bring it back on line in a matter of a few days or weeks or even months.
Spend a buck and buy a clue.
If our oil imports from overseas are cut off for some reason we can use that oil from Canada for our own domestic use we don’t have to export it.
The Support of TBD and Corker Iran give the character of the man, SoCon.
However, I can honestly say that a terrorist invasion happening NOW is far more important than some small print disagreements over the constitutional interpretation of eminent domain.
I’ll deal with that later. I’m worried about terrorists attacking masses of people at sports or entertainment venues right now.
It is you who has to reconcile the hypocritical support for eminent domain taking people’s property for a pipeline. Based on some imagined what if scenario - we can take people’s property in case Mars invades.
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PS: Then build it just over the border with Canada. Saves the need for a pipeline. But you can't export to China from the Dakota's.
Oh, believe me, Trump’s support for the Kelo decision is the number one reason why I support Cruz over Trump.
Cruz’s support for Gay Marriage is the reason I’ll never vote for him
He seems to be wanting American greatness at some level.
The thing that is bugging me more and more is that Donald doesn’t always know when to stop, on a number of other things. There IS such a thing as political capital, and there IS such a thing as wasting it. Tweeting little nasty notes is not a good follow on to his otherwise humble second place concession to the Iowa caucus. A problem with tweeting is that the tone of voice does not come through. A stress, a change in pitch or timing, that might convey intentional hyperbole or part-kidding, is just not there, and he makes enemies he never needed to make.
I am praying in general for a blessing to obtain in the race. Trump could be the carrier in the end. But we need improvement from where we are, or we don’t have anything viable yet.
That is not a parking garage, that is an unfinished casino
Trump bought that casino and ripped it down in 93ish
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