Free Republic

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tuesday,July5,2005 STRAYHORN JOINS TEXANS IN CALL FOR STATE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT AND URGES GOVERNOR TO ALLOW 2006 PRIMARY VOTE ON TOLL ROADS (AUSTIN) – Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, Republican candidate for Governor in 2006, today joined Texans in urging Gov. Rick Perry to allow Legislators to adopt a state constitutional amendment protecting property owners. “Farmers and land owners everywhere were indeed dealt a devastating blow when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that eminent domain used for private business development is a legal use of condemnation authority,” Strayhorn said. “Lawmakers are meeting now so it won’t cost taxpayers...

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Shocked at a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that allows cities to raze homes so developers can build private hotels, malls and office parks on the land, state lawmakers called for legislation to ban the practice Friday. The high court split 5-4 in a Connecticut case Thursday that under the Fifth Amendment, municipalities could take private property for private development because the project in question met a public purpose: creating jobs and revenue. But in an impassioned dissent, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote that the court majority had forsaken the middle class and gutted the American principle...