A Model For Texas
Va. lawmakers to bar home seizure for private uses (Bob Lewis, 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 of individual property rights to further enrich the wealthy.
At least eight states already forbid local governments from using eminent domain to take private property for private development. The high court's majority opinion said states may adopt protections against the practice if they see fit.
In conservative Virginia, the ruling stunned and angered legislative Democrats and Republicans, some of whom began exploring ways to nullify the ruling in the state.
Del. Johnny Joannou was on his way Friday to consult with bill-drafting experts in the General Assembly's Division of Legislative Services about a remedy, possibly a state constitutional amendment.
It's time for Texas to do the same thing.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/27/05 21:44 | American Politics | Technorati
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Comments
Hopefully Texas will get such a law.
But I ain't holding my breath.
Heck, they are already finding ways to bypass the open beach laws already on the books.
Posted by Brian Poirier @ 23:13 on 06/27/05
I must have taken my optimism pill this morning, because I'm seeing a silver lining in this ruling. It could well set an example for the way state laws should be handled for all the rights in the Bill of Rights (not to mention those penumbral characters lurking in the corners).
Posted by Tom Hanna @ 23:47 on 06/27/05
whaddaya say we form a corporation and pettition to have the homes of the 5 majority supreme court justices houses condemed via emminent domain to be made into homeless shelters, or a soup kitchen, or I don't know, maybe an insane asylum....
Posted by Rorschach @ 10:13 on 06/28/05
apparently someone has already thought of that. Matt over at LST found it.
http://lonestartimes.com/in...
Posted by Rorschach @ 14:15 on 06/28/05
Much is being made of the bill (authored by Cort I think is the guys name) that has been authored in the last day or two, but the simple fact of the matter is that unless Perry puts it on the agenda of the special session, it isn't going anywhere anytime soon. Personally I feel the place to address this is on the Federal Level although many disagree. My reasons are:
1. It can be done virtually immediately. We don't have to wait for the next regular session or for Perry to put it on the agenda.
2. The playing field will be level, every municipality will be dealing with the same set of rules, instead of having a mishmash depending on where you are.
3. The Federal Government,(in the form of the Judiciary) made this mess, The Feds need to fix it. One of the fundamental issues the founding fathers had with the Brits was that they were taking personal property without due process and without compensating the owners. That was the whole purpose of that language being in the 5th ammendment anyway. Souter and friends may be technically right in that the language used does not specifically say what "public good" is, but the intent of the clause seems perfectly clear to me. But if we MUST specify what it means, it needs to be in the same venue that the question was raised in.
Posted by Rorschach @ 12:47 on 06/29/05
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