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.
Cruz supported gay marriage? That’s a new one to me. I think he said he’d continue to show love to a daughter if she engaged in one of these shams, but that’s biblical, that has nothing to do with approving of what she did. Or did you mean something else?
I agree with your assessment. Trump needs to let things go.
Instead of going after, or even mentioning Megan Kelly, he should have stated that we had enough debates, I want to do something more beneficial and will be doing a Veterans fund raiser instead.
sounds more professional.
He needs to let go the Megan Kelly Schtick, it is getting tiring
I think that God raises and deposes leaders. Obama is on the way out, and what a punishment for our nation.
Will we have more punishment or will we be given another chance?
So your idea is to build new refineries instead of a pipeline to take the oil to existing refineries?
How would you move the finished products?
Trains, trucks clue me in.
http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=10551
March 27, 2013
Rising North Dakota oil production and demand spurs two new refineries
What's the reason for New Orleans now??????
Yes, you are correct.
Taken together, more residents in areas targeted by eminent domain are ethnic or racial minorities, who have completed significantly less education, and live on significantly less income; more of them live at or below the federal poverty line, as quoted in the International Business Times.
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And those are the communities that receive the most benefit from eminent domain.
I have owned property in urban areas. Getting “domained out” is like hitting the lottery. Most of these communities are blighted and you cannot sell your property even if you wanted to AT ANY PRICE.
Taken together, more residents in areas targeted by eminent domain are ethnic or racial minorities, who have completed significantly less education, and live on significantly less income; more of them live at or below the federal poverty line, as quoted in the International Business Times.
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And those are the communities that receive the most benefit from eminent domain.
I have owned property in urban areas. Getting “domained out” is like hitting the lottery. Most of these communities are blighted and you cannot sell your property even if you wanted to AT ANY PRICE.
“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
- Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759
So don’t worry about a return to constitutional principles? Fight only a tactical, whack-a-mole war without an overall strategy, i.e., Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, OIF, OEF...?
Missed that lesson in War College...
It depends on our attitude.
If we come to the Throne as “God be merciful to us sinners” then a lot of sin will be pardoned.
It’s trying to take care of sin on our own that gets us punished. We literally catch the devil. It is its own punishment.
Sure, manhunter, let’s ignore the attack on your house by an enraged group of jihadists, because you and your wife are arguing over whether Dish charged you correctly on your TV bill.
Makes sense to me.
Gee, isn’t there enough other Trump stuff to discuss?
How many time do we need to read about this? Bring on the poor little old lady in Atlantic City, take #754.
The idea of real estate rights being on the same level as papers and effects is something that even the Constitution came up with a compromise for.
We’ll buy it from you fair and square for thus and such public purposes, but then you do have to sell it.
The idea of the compromise including tax revenue is not so much a bad principle but that it has turned out to be wasteful in practice. Nobody should be encouraging waste. Most states enacted various restrictions after the Kelo decision and fiasco.
Sorry friend - private property rights are the foundation of the country.
You can parse ED all you want.....you can even make a case for getting a juicy payout. Reality is it’s a forced sale based on the discretion of a locality or a company.
Yes it’s a forced sale.
But America can’t invent anything out of thin air before God. It turns out to be as fragile as that thin air.
As I keep on reminding people. If you want to know who owns your house, stop paying the taxes.
It’s embarrassing to see conservatives twisting themselves into pretzels defending the use of eminent domain for a limousine parking lot.
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The facts have been misrepresented. The use of a parking lot was going to be temporary. The future use was to build another hotel tower and this boarding house was one part of an ASSEMBLAGE. In fact, one element of the court’s basis for striking down the Eminent Domain had to do with the fact that the property would not be put to the proper public use immediately which was a new hotel tower, so it ruled against the Casino Development Company on the temporary use.
The case is worth reading.
As most things...there is a lot more to the story.
It would seem that even for Kelo like situations there should be a “use it or lose it” principle in effect. Otherwise waste is invited.
And you may be confusing this with the notion of castle doctrine.
Castle doctrine doesn’t mean you can’t be evicted. It does mean that some robber can’t just barge in on you without due process, and if he tries he can be given the Old Testament treatment.
What God stands behind is truly the definition of what is essential.
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