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House votes to overturn Supreme Court decision on eminent domainBy Pete Kasperowicz - 02/28/12 05:19 PM ET The House on Tuesday afternoon approved legislation that overturns a 2005 Supreme Court decision that affirmed the ability of states to take control of private property under the doctrine of eminent domain and hand it to another private developer. That decision, Kelo v. City of New London, led to sharp complaints in particular from Republicans, who argued that the Court ignored the normal "public use" standard. Under that standard, eminent domain was seen as permissible only when the land or property taken would...

Gov. Rick Perry's political stock has soared in recent months as he has traveled the country touting a decade of fiscal restraint in Texas under his leadership. Last month, Perry made Texas history by signing a two-year state budget that cuts overall spending for the first time in over 40 years. Perry has long promoted the state's fiscal record as a model for the country and a key to why Texas has weathered the recession better than most other states. He has opposed new taxes and been vehemently anti-Washington, and his message is drawing interest among Republican primary voters nationwide....

As he weighs whether to jump into the 2012 Republican presidential race, Texas Gov. Rick Perry has been dialing GOP establishment bigwigs across the country. In phone calls that sometimes stretch more than a half hour, Perry asks the same questions: Is the door open for a new candidate? And how wide is it open? Perry is finding that a vast reservoir of the Republican Party establishment — broadly defined to include elected officials, donors, strategists and activists whose support fuels presidential campaigns — is so far untapped, according to interviews conducted Monday and Tuesday with 19 major donors, strategists...

Rick Perry has started calling Iowa Republicans and a former RNC finance chairman is helping to convene a meeting of national donors later this month in Austin to discuss financing a potential 2012 campaign — signs that the Texas governor and his allies are stepping up their exploratory efforts. The developments come as Perry is being watched by a string of donors, early-state voters and elites who say they're disenchanted, and in search of a stronger candidate. Continue Reading Republican activist Joni Scotter told POLITICO she got a surprise phone call this afternoon from Perry, asking about the political landscape...

And, now, the group Americans for Rick Perry reports it has raised a fair amount of money in a short amount of time. Bob Schuman, a senior strategist for Americans for Rick Perry, said Thursday that the group is expanding its fundraising operation outside of Texas to include Miami, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. The group can accept unlimited donations but, under federal law, can't strategize with Perry himself.

Four summers ago, 73 percent of Republicans were satisfied with the candidates seeking the 2008 GOP presidential nomination. Now, an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll revealed on Wednesday, only 45 percent of Republicans are happy with today's 2012 contenders. Texas Gov. Rick Perry, 61, could cure the GOP's ennui. As America's economy slumbers, Perry tells a stimulating story about Texas' pro-market growth and job creation, two subjects that top the American mind. Between January 2001 and June 2010, the Bureau of Labor Statistics calculates, Texas' non-farm employment grew from 9,542,400 in January 2001, when Perry took office, to 10,395,800 in...

NEW ORLEANS — Four years after George W. Bush left the White House, some US Republicans are pinning their hopes on his successor as Texas governor to triumph over President Barack Obama in the 2012 election. Governor Rick Perry, who has openly flirted with running and said he will decide soon whether to throw his hat in the ring, was due Saturday to address delegates to an influential Republican Party gathering in this party city. Perry isn't on the Southern Republican Leadership Conference straw poll ballot, but some of the delegates here say they like what they have seen so...

MAY 18, 2011 - Being a Southerner conveys certain advantages upon a Republican presidential candidate. Since 1980, a Southerner has finished first or second in every Iowa Republican presidential caucus. [snip] The White House has been occupied by a Southerner — counting the Massachusetts-born and decidedly patrician George H.W. Bush, who resided in Texas at the time he ran for office — in 30 of the past 46 years. I’m not sure this is entirely a coincidence.... [snip] If a candidate dominates the South — and it’s much easier for a Southern candidate to do that — he’ll have made...

The following is adapted from a speech delivered on February 16, 2011, at a Hillsdale College National Leadership Seminar in Phoenix, Arizona. TO BEGIN, consider one of the most important measures of property, the kilogram. It’s a measure of mass or, for non-scientific purposes, weight. According to the papers last week, a global scramble is under way to define this most basic unit after it was discovered that the standard kilogram—a cylinder of platinum and iridium that is maintained by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures—has been losing mass. You may think that this is impossible. Of all the...

While the ink has hardly set on the U.S. Supreme Court's controversial 5-4 ruling in the Kelo vs. New London case, a move is underway to urge Congress to pass a constitutional amendment affording greater protection to property owners from unwanted government intervention for the promotion of economic development. Rep. David Floyd, R-Bardstown, has signed on for a resolution that has made its rounds among Kentucky House minority members. Have the Supremes finally flipped their judicial wigs? Here is some background as well as some key language, from the majority as well as the dissent sides: The Connecticut Supreme Court's...

Property Ruling Strikes Nerve in House Reacting to high court decision, lawmakers pass amendment that would ban use of federal funds for some seizures of private land. By Maura Reynolds and David G. Savage Times Staff Writers July 1, 2005 WASHINGTON — Angry over a recent Supreme Court decision, the House on Thursday began a legislative drive to roll back the power of local governments to seize homes and other private property for economic development projects. By a vote of 231 to 189, the House approved an amendment forbidding the administration from spending money on local projects that seize private...

Last week, I reported on the Supreme Court's Kelo vs City of New London decision, which seriously weakened Constitutionally guaranteed private property rights. Now, in what can only be viewed as an attempt at pure poetic justice, a budding developer, businessman Logan Darrow Clements, has begun the process of seizing Supreme Court Justice David Souter's homestead in Weare, New Hampshire and replacing it with a hotel. Citing the Kelo decision, Clements has contacted Weare's building official, saying: "Although this property is owned by an individual, David H. Souter, a recent Supreme Court decision, "Kelo vs. City of New London" clears...

As the Supreme Court embraced moderation, the conservative agenda stalled. Solicitor General Paul Clement says he's noticed a new trend in the wardrobe of Supreme Court advocates. More and more men who argue before the Court are wearing bow ties, a tribute to the trademark neckwear of Justice John Paul Stevens -- and to his power. Midway through the ninth decade of his life, Stevens reached the peak of his career in the Supreme Court term that ended Monday. With a strong assist from Justice Anthony Kennedy, Stevens, 85, was able to assemble majorities and write opinions that read like...

The Coming Revenge of the "New Londoners" Could a little known telecom class action case point the way to justice for homeowners caught up in confiscatory redevelopment projects? "A man's home is...somebody else's piggybank." -- Glenn Reynolds Perhaps it is appropriate that the name of the City in the recent U.S. Supreme Court eminent domain case is New London, Connecticut. Over 200 years ago in "Old London" and in the Old World of Europe all land was owned by the "sovereign." The sovereign ruler leased his land only to land barons. There was no such thing as private property. However,...