Bye Bye Home Sweet Home...

Today the US Supreme Court made what I believe to be a bad decision. They ruled 5-4 that a local government has the right to seize an individual’s property through “eminent domain” for economic development purposes solely.
In the case of “Kelo et al versus the City of New London, Connecticut” the court ruled that seizure is appropriate if the government can demonstrate it will lead to an increase of jobs and tax revenues.
The concept of eminent domain has been around for decades and its primary use has been to acquire space for essential infrastructure improvements especially right of ways for roads and rails, hospitals, schools or the redevelopment of blighted areas. New York City’s modern commercial success today for example has been widely dependent on eminent domain actions on the part of the City and State Governments in the 40’s and 50’s when hundreds of thousands of residents were relocated to build a system of super highways.
Normally you would find me on the side of the commercial developers on a legal issue, but not this one. What this means is that if your home abuts the local Best Buy (God forbid) and Best Buy decides that it wants your property to expand its parking lot they can go to your local city commission or town council and force you to sell it to them.
That’s not right..