Friday, June 24, 2005

The end of private property as we know it

I feel like an idiot for scolding people for not voting Democratic, (or not voting at all) because it would keep Bush from filling the next Supreme Court vacancies with conservative judges. Considering this decision, essentially authorizing theft of private property by municipalities for the benefit of private, for-profit entities was rendered by the so called liberals on SCOTUS, pass me that dish of crow. All of you who said it doesn't make a bit of difference were right.
"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.
Read that as the local politicos want to cater to the local deep pocket contributors to their reelection campaigns and any increased tax revenue will come from the few people that may obtain employment from the project. The guy making the real profits will get the tax loopholes. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, for the dissent gets it right.
"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."
The liberals sell out the little guy while the conservatives dissent? It's enough to give a progressive heartburn.
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