High court OKs personal property seizures
The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that local governments may seize people’s homes and businesses — even against their will — for private economic development.
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“The city has carefully formulated an economic development that it believes will provide appreciable benefits to the community, including — but by no means limited to — new jobs and increased tax revenue,” Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the majority.He was joined by Justice Anthony Kennedy, David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer.
Granted, this kind of crap is nothing new – it’s a favorite tactic of some big box stores. But I’d always figure that the SCOTUS would set some bar to it if it ever got there, or at least that it would be the pro-business conservatives.
In all, I’m ashamed to be lumped under the same “liberal” label as this decision… on the other hand, major props to Justice O’Connor both for her adissent, and for this particularly apt note:
“Any property may now be taken for the benefit of another private party, but the fallout from this decision will not be random,” O’Connor wrote. “The beneficiaries are likely to be those citizens with disproportionate influence and power in the political process, including large corporations and development firms.”
via Eddy on the DBA mailing list.
Typo corrected: 2005-07-11T04:53:32