Kelo et al. v. City of New London et al.

A huge travesty has occurred today. The Supreme Court has decided in a 5-4 decision that government can take private property and give it to another private entity for the sole purpose of increasing tax revenue.

This is abysmal. The Constitution's Fifth Amendment specifically addresses this issue in stating that government can take private property only if the purpose is for public use and if the owner receives just compensation. The Court has, in the past, stretched the definition to mean government can take blighted areas to rehabilitate them. That wasn't an issue here. The government did not claim this area was blighted. They claimed they had developed an economic plan that will improve the area and "will provide appreciable benefits to the community, including--but by no means limited to--new jobs and increased tax revenue."

With this decision all private property can be confiscated if someone with money wants to build an office building or even a larger house so long as the project either creates new jobs or increased tax revenue!!! It doesn't matter how long you've lived there or how well kept the property is. If someone else can use it and tax revenue will be increased then the government can now take it. This needs to be fought. Please contact your local politicians to have them fight to re-establish the sanctity of private property. There are also two organizations who fight against eminent domain abuse: The Institute for Justice and the Castle Coalition .

With this decision the Supreme Court has hamstrung private property owners.