Just to tag something further on to the issue of local control, I have this other thought. Most of the recent battles on the issue of Eminent Domain have been on the local level. Cities taking churches and giving the property to more tax producing business ventures. Cities taking property from small businesses, homeowners, apartment complexes, you-name-it, and giving the property to someone who promises the city more money in tax dollars. This redistribution of wealth is not to the public good. We are taking from the less well-to-do and giving to the more well-to-do. This doesn't make sense. Now, I'm not saying I am in favor of any redistribution of wealth. I'm only saying that this doesn't even fit the normal arguments in favor of it.
It brings to mind the word of Thommas Jefferson, as inscribed in the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC.
"God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?
Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever."
Eminent Domain Related Links:
Milwaukee Federalists: Supreme Court accepts six new cases Many States Making Progress in Protecting Private Property New Jersey Eminent Domain Think Tank Eminent Domain Institute
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