Eminent domain users told to hit the road

June 24, 2007 in The Wire

A judge rules that the government didn’t follow the rules, so a landowner gets his property back, only by now it’s a highway. Yeah, it’s a big screwed-up mess. But any time eminent domain is overturned, I feel a little bit better about America. To bad they don’t give back to widowed senior citizens the land that greedy developers sieze to build unsuccessful strip malls.

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4 Responses to “Eminent domain users told to hit the road”

Rick Powell Says:
June 25th, 2007 at 2:00 am
So, this mess in GA is a good thing? ED is part of the US constitution, you know. It should be used judiciously, for a public purpose only, and always with just compensation (the "reasonable man" standard should apply here). Let's face it, if there were no ED, one unreasonable person could kill any infrastructure project that required additional property. I agree that the power is unreasonable when it provides a direct private benefit such as a strip mall development and the feds and states should ban ED for this purpose. IL is one of the better states with its recent legislation sharply curtailing ED powers for private benefit.
Cory Says:
June 25th, 2007 at 8:21 am
I have two words for that old man: TOLL BOOTHS. He could make a FORTUNE charging a toll for crossing his land.
RomanII Says:
June 25th, 2007 at 9:22 am
And how about land taken to build a ball park used s ix months out of the year-paid for in part by public tax monies for private use and gain?
BJStone Says:
June 25th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
I agree with Rick that it should be used sparingly and judiciously, but I agree with Bill that it's good to see a ruling against corporate greed. Just like the way we always keep the oil companies in check, right Bill?