Supreme Court Did Away with Private Property Rights

In a 5/4 ruling regarding the use of Eminent Domain in New London, Connecticut, the Supreme Court has virtually eliminated the individual’s right to property ownership in favor of the “collective” power of governmental entities. This alone should be grounds to remove those Supreme Court Justices, arrogant men who have rewritten our heritage to property ownership and abandoned the trust of the individuals for whom they were put in place to serve.

“Local officials, not federal judges, know best in deciding whether a development project will benefit the community, justices said.” Excuse me for bringing this up, neither local official’s; elected or appointed, nor any judge’s names are on my deed of record under the line “owner” and therefore have no right to say how I use my property; provided that use is within the established existing deed restrictions. The key word is “existing”, as in at the time of acquisition, rather than restrictions established after the fact in order for such governmental entities to zone “undesirables” out from under their otherwise lawful property. There is no such thing as “collective rights”, only “powers” granted to government used to either protect individual rights or destroy those rights. I believe the latter is now in force.

The impunity with which these men have handled the rights of individuals is nearly beyond my ability to explain it to them. In one fell swoop 5 men have taken it upon themselves to do away with nearly every individual right fought for since the Magna Charta. Will it take violent force to restore these individual rights? I am not advocating the threat of personal attacks upon our judiciary; merely pointing out the fact that when the citizenry becomes disenfranchised from the government which has been put in place to protect such rights, then certain volatile elements of that same society will emerge as avenging angels intent on immediate resolution rather than pursuing a more tolerant or time honored method through the justice system. That justice system is no longer acting in the best interests of the individuals for whom they serve, and so, as an institution is at risk. It is not enough to trust those whom we elect to properly conduct the affairs of the community, not when such broad powers have been turned over to them.

"The city has carefully formulated an economic development that it believes will provide appreciable benefits to the community, including -- but by no means limited to -- new jobs and increased tax revenue," Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the majority. He was joined by Justice Anthony Kennedy, David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer.

Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, speaking on behalf of the dissenting votes, "Any property may now be taken for the benefit of another private party, but the fallout from this decision will not be random," O'Connor wrote. "The beneficiaries are likely to be those citizens with disproportionate influence and power in the political process, including large corporations and development firms." She was joined in her opinion by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, as well as Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.

Instead of trying to come up with a Constitutional Amendment to protect the flag, something which should be addressed via the legislative process, We The People need to have an Amendment to the Constitution that clearly defines the right to private property of the individual, one that will replace the now “flexible or progressive” Fifth Amendment, which allows governments to take private property through eminent domain if the land is for "public use." The courts have systematically re-defined the meaning of “public use” in order to remove any semblance to its original intended meaning. In so doing they have dissolved the rights of the individual, the key element to the foundation of our country.

I have yet to read my regular list of blogs as this would come under the heading of "breaking news"; but I expect that this will be a hot item of topic for quite a few of them. Please feel free to chime in on this very important issue.

I have had a chance to read some of my friends blogs, here's a start on your reading list:
( My blood pressure is going up each time I attempt to insert a hidden URL and it screws up. I would include a permalink URL to each article but some of them are too long and push my side bar out of whack. So, in the interest of health and mental stability, my own, I will simply tell you to go visit them and find the articles they wrote. &^%$^&&&*(&*^%% and that goes for the horse too...)

Brad's Unrepentant Individual was still so bothered that he needed to rant...
http://unrepentantindividual.com/

Mover Mike has written about the dangers of Eminent Domain severl times...
http://movermike.powerblogs.com

Ross had an interesting thought as he expressed that this was the worst of the most recent supreme court decisions"...

http://rossputin.com/blog/index.php