Will The Court Right Property Wrongs?

Via James Joyner, the Supremes are coming up on the case of government theft of private property for the purpose of turning it into different private property and increasing tax revenues.

I barely accept that eminent domain has any valid place in our government and sociaty as it exists, never mind how it more ideally ought to be.  I’ve come to live with the idea of it being used for things like road construction.

That despite my initial horror as a child when I first learned that eminent domain existed; the earliest autonomic libertarian impulse I can expressly recall.

If the Supremes rule in favor of the wrongful taking, which I see no legal or moral basis for them to do, then this country is in rougher shape than I might have imagined.

Then again, there was no valid, conscionable reason for the 1954 ruling that let them bulldoze “blighted” areas either.  To paraphrase Palpatine, “there is no property, only politics.”

I am also in the school of “if a regulation reduces the value of your property, it’s a recompensable taking” thought.  If you buy some land and it has restricted use, that will be reflected in the price.  No harm done.  If you buy some land, then the use becomes restricted, you’re the one who takes the hit to the value if you want to sell it.  You should get the difference, just as much as you should get at least the market value of the property if it is all taken.  But I digress.

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