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Today I learned Connecticut Supreme Court Justice Richard Palmer is "sorry" for the way he voted in the infamous eminent domain Kelo v. New London case, making it perfectly legal for the government to steal people's homes and turn them over to corporations. A city dump now stands where the homes were.
thenewgreen · 5107 days ago · link ·
I don't know the details of this case but eminent domain is an often abused law. When I was a boy, I recall my parents fighting tooth and nail to help an elderly women named Betty keep her home. She must have been in her 80's. She lived in a farmhouse that was one of the oldest homes in our entire town. The house was near our high school. The school decided that they needed the land to build a new entrance to the school. After a couple year battle, the school board won a lawsuit and she was forced out of her home. I remember helping her pack her things and move. It was horrible. She and her husband (who had died a few years prior) had raised several children there. They kicked her out so that they could have 2 entrances, instead of one. It was seriously evil stuff.
My understanding is that the law eminent domain came in to existence during the railroad expansion west. They had to seize land that was in the natural pathway of the rails. -This makes a LOT more sense than the case I'm citing. As for the article, although it is horrible that she had to leave her home but at least she received some peace via the apology. To the best of my knowledge.... Betty never had any such gesture before she died.
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The Kelo case is probably one of the most famous (infamous?) in all eminent domain cases. It's Korematsu v. United States (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korematsu_v._United_States) applied to eminent domain. It's disgusting. It's just one more example of how corrupt the USSC is.
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thenewgreen · 5107 days ago · link ·
Apparently property rights only apply when the owner is an institution and not a person. It's a slippery slope when we start letting this like this occur, it really is.
Thanks for making me aware of this case. I enjoyed the read.