Eminent Domain Abuses

Those who follow eminent domain abuses were cheered by the Michigan Supreme Court's ruling this summer that it is illegal for the government to seize private land and transfer it to another private owner for public "benefit."

But that's one state. The abuses will not end until the U.S. Supreme Court stops the land-grabbers.

The predicate for these abusive eminent domain cases is that a private entity -- the government's good buddy, naturally -- will make better use of the land by providing more jobs or greater tax revenue. (Here in Western Pennsylvania, we've never heard such overblown promises, have we?)

In economically distressed New London, Conn., the drug company Pfizer built a research center. Nearby, a piece of waterfront land caught the eye of the government. Why, with the new plant in town, a private developer could turn the 90 acres into a real tax generator.

Some property owners balked at selling, and the city resorted to eminent domain, upheld by the Connecticut Supreme Court, 4-3. The U.S. Supreme Court has been asked to take up the case -- which it must.

Even the communist land reformers operated under the pretense that the farms would go to the people. This is more the naked fascist model: the government in concert with the corporatists against the sacred rights of the individual.

And no wonder: The fascists always leaned a little farther left.

---

The Tribune-Review Publishing Co
Eminent Domain Attorney