Supreme Court Decision on Eminent Domain
"Promoting economic development is a traditional and long accepted function of government. Clearly, there is no basis for exempting economic development from our traditionally broad understanding of public purpose." - Justice John Paul Stevens, affirming
The message: Don't buy land for personal use that could one day become valuable to industry or government tax base. No property is exempt from this possibility. Ooooh.
Pfizer is now free to build a $350M research center in the formerly "distressed" Fort Trumbull neighborhood of New London, CT.
"Under the banner of economic development, all private property is now vulnerable to being taken and transferred to another private owner, so long as it might be upgraded....The government now has license to transfer property from those with fewer resources to those with more. The founders cannot have intended this perverse result" - Sandra Day O'Connor, dissenting
Just sayin'.
I totally fucking freaked out when I heard about this. It's a scary ruling. Everything the justices do is scary though. Imposing their will. Ugh. I have another ruling to contend with before I can try to fully wrap my mind around this one. The recent 2257 ruling is threatening to make my life much fucking harder. Fuck George Bush in his stupid ass. I need a drink.
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