I've said that I really think this eminent domain thing is different because it literally effects just about everybody, no matter their politics, views on freedom, or if they like guns or not.
Here's more evidence.
From the Wall Street Journal's editorial today.
Subscription required, but here's the link anyway.
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112173894316389100,00.html?mod=opinion_main_review_and_outlooks
Homeowners in New London, Connecticut got a temporary reprieve last week when state legislators declared a moratorium on takings of private property while they consider how to revise the law on eminent domain. The state assembly could meet in special session as early as this month.
Call it the Kelo effect. A few weeks after the Supreme Court's ruling in Kelo v. New London that local governments have more or less unlimited power to seize private property, Connecticuters aren't the only citizens who want to make sure they can't be evicted from homes and businesses in order to make way for private economic development. A grassroots movement has sprung up across the country.
It's instructive to watch how quickly politicians can react when they want to. In Connecticut, where Democrats control both houses of the state assembly, a Republican-sponsored bill to forbid the taking of private homes for private economic development failed as recently as three weeks ago. Yet last week Speaker of the House James Amann was quoted on the need for a law that "offers homeowners some peace of mind." Mr. Amann represents Milford, whose aldermen recently voted unanimously to prevent the city from using eminent domain to take property for private development.
As for Governor Jodi Rell, a Republican, when we called her office a few days after the Kelo ruling, a spokesman talked about the need "to strike a right balance between property rights and economic development." Last week, Ms. Rell issued a press release calling eminent domain "the 21st century equivalent of the Boston Tea Party." This time, she said, "it is not a monarch wearing robes in England we are fighting; it is five robed justices at the Supreme Court in Washington."
Here's more evidence.
From the Wall Street Journal's editorial today.
Subscription required, but here's the link anyway.
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112173894316389100,00.html?mod=opinion_main_review_and_outlooks
Homeowners in New London, Connecticut got a temporary reprieve last week when state legislators declared a moratorium on takings of private property while they consider how to revise the law on eminent domain. The state assembly could meet in special session as early as this month.
Call it the Kelo effect. A few weeks after the Supreme Court's ruling in Kelo v. New London that local governments have more or less unlimited power to seize private property, Connecticuters aren't the only citizens who want to make sure they can't be evicted from homes and businesses in order to make way for private economic development. A grassroots movement has sprung up across the country.
It's instructive to watch how quickly politicians can react when they want to. In Connecticut, where Democrats control both houses of the state assembly, a Republican-sponsored bill to forbid the taking of private homes for private economic development failed as recently as three weeks ago. Yet last week Speaker of the House James Amann was quoted on the need for a law that "offers homeowners some peace of mind." Mr. Amann represents Milford, whose aldermen recently voted unanimously to prevent the city from using eminent domain to take property for private development.
As for Governor Jodi Rell, a Republican, when we called her office a few days after the Kelo ruling, a spokesman talked about the need "to strike a right balance between property rights and economic development." Last week, Ms. Rell issued a press release calling eminent domain "the 21st century equivalent of the Boston Tea Party." This time, she said, "it is not a monarch wearing robes in England we are fighting; it is five robed justices at the Supreme Court in Washington."