Eminent Domain

Sean Hannity and Alan Combs have been all over the recent eminent domain cases that have come up since the Supreme Court decision in Kelo vs. the City of New London was handed down last summer. Now in all honesty, I don't know if property transfers have increased since the ruling or if the media is just reporting more cases because of the ruling. I haven't been able to find statistics that would support the claim that Eminent Domain has been used more often since the ruling than before. However, I can tell you that the stories I have seen reported have been heartbreaking tales. The Hannity and Combs website has a few of them posted.

Eminent Domain has traditionally been used when there has been a clear public benefit, e.g. building roads, hospitals, even when a whole neighborhood has become in such disrepair that its better for the government to just tear down the buildings and start new (Washington, DC). All of these things have a direct cause towards the betterment of the community. With the Kelo decision the Supreme Courts has said that government can transfer private property to another private company because the public good is served indirectly because of the transfer, e.g. increased tax base or collateral job creation.

To me the danger of this ruling is obvious. We see how our political process is tainted by special interests groups. How can we expect the individual, the one that has lived their life in the same house for 60 years, the one that has served this country during times of war and the one that grew his small business from the ground up to have the same influence on their government as a casino owner, a mall developer or in Kelo's instance Pfizer Pharmaceuticals? In addition, in the Kelo case it wasn't even elected officials that made a decision to confiscate the lands, but a "non-profit" private development firm, whose board was appointed without public approval.