Supreme Court Rules Cities May Seize Homes

Very bad news for personal property rights, good news for those wishing to exercise eminent domain wherever they please. Expect more commentary/feedback on this ruling in the next few days.

As a result, cities now have wide power to bulldoze residences for projects such as shopping malls and hotel complexes in order to generate tax revenue.
From the Washington Post. More at the SCOTUSblog and the NYTimes. NYTimes has a link to background on the case. Thanks to Curbed for the links.

Update: Rick Sincere’s blog (saw this thank to the Cville blog aggregator) has a far more detailed summary of today’s ruling.

This is frightening – As talk show host Neal Boortz put it this morning: “You only own your home so long as your local government chooses to allow you to own your home.”

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3 Comments

  1. Rick Sincere June 23, 2005 at 12:51

    This is really a horrible decision. The dissents (by O’Connor and Thomas) explain exactly why.

  2. Pingback: Waldo Jaquith » Court: The rich can buy you.

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