Saving Your Property
You may remember the Supreme Court’s Kelo decision of last year. It was a case about eminent domain abuse. Five out of nine justices concluded that governments may pretty much grab your property whenever they like, so long they concocts some thin rationale about enhancing the economy.
No need for “public use” of the confiscated property: a city can just take your land at will and turn it over to a condo developer. In the wake of Kelo, legislation has been proposed around the country either protecting or pretending to protect citizens from such abuse. And a recent executive order issued by the Bush Administration tells federal agencies not to do that sort of thing. The only exceptions would be — well, the order lists a lot of exceptions. I doubt Bush’s action will have much positive effect, but I’ll keep my fingers crossed.
If you’re living in California, there is something you can do. You can vote for an initiative called the Protect Our Homes Act, which has qualified for California’s fall ballot. The act would still let governments in the state seize so-called blighted property. But the seized land could not then be simply handed over to private companies. And a “blighted” property would have to really be “blighted” for the state to exercise eminent domain over it. It couldn’t just, you know, have a little too much dirt on the window sill.
Let’s hope this initiative is the start of a beautiful citizen-initiative trend.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
