Posted on 01/14/2007 5:22:44 AM PST by Liz
The U.S. Supreme Court may have ruled that private property could be taken for public benefits like jobs or taxes, but what about for outright extortion? Can my private property be taken because I refused to pay off a private developer who wanted land I owned and planned to develop? As remarkable as it sounds, two federal courts in New York already allowed what amounts to outright eminent-domain extortion. In 2003, a developer approached my business partner and me, saying we could either pay him $800,000 or give him a 50 percent interest in a business we were about to develop, or he would cause the Village of Port Chester to take our property through eminent domain.
Outraged, we refused. The very next day, Port Chester condemned our property. (Both sides' attorneys were present when we turned down that offer - and attorneys, as officers of the court, must tell the truth. My attorney will swear this is what occurred and the developer's attorney has never once refuted my account of what transpired. What's more, the developer admitted in a court document that he made this offer.)
And if you think this abuse of power couldn't get more outrageous, consider this fact: I had an agreement to develop a pharmacy on my land, and had a plan fully approved by the town government. So what is the favored developer going to put up if he gets his way? A pharmacy. The same exact use, only one developer (him) has political connections while the other developer (me) has nothing but a deed to the property and constitutional rights that are supposed to be protected by the government, not abused by them.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
This sounds like it's straight-out Mafia stuff.
I hope Souter is happy and able to sleep at night. Too bad his house in NH hasn't been turned into a hotel yet.
Nothing but a shakedown---and the court upheld it.
How many more con artists will be replicating the shakedown MO?
They should have applied to turn Souter's place into a brothel, catering exclusively to politicians---the salivating pols would have approved it hands-down.
Now that the Republican Party has failed it's time to move to the Consitution Party. We won't win many elections at first but remember your history: in the 1850s the entrenched Whigs sneered at the new Republicans.
Time for a new conservative party.
I wonder if these private owners have a connection if any, to the developer?
The Conservative Party is the ally of unchecked leftism. The Conservative party cannot get Alito and Roberts justices confirmed. The "Failed Republicans" -DID-. Scalia and Thomas will wither away, and Hillary etal will cement their power as you guys pat yourselves on the backs for moral victories.
Thanks for posting. Very interesting. More here...http://www.cvs4pcny.com/
George Bush the First failed the Constitution when he subjected the cops in the Rodney King case to double jeopardy. Now if you believe that the intent of the Framers of the Constitution, was to have every crime defined multiple ways, then they knew protection from Double Jeopardy was a joke, and therefore they knew the who Constitution is a joke.
The Constitution is a joke as long as Civil Rights laws are on the books, because as seen with Double Jeopardy, they trump the Constitution. Civil Rights laws also trump Property Rights. Your property rights under the Constitution are a joke, because the government can use Civil Rights laws to mean anything they want, and trump the Constitution.
If you do not believe that Civil Rights laws trump property rights, try selling, or not selling, your property, from a plate of scrambled eggs and bacon, to your house, to who ever you choose, or choose not to.
No comment that wouldn't get me banned or worse.
George Bush did that? Personally? How? Where? From 1992?
This case is an abomination, prescient of what is to come across the nation unless the people wake up.
I thank God every day that I don't live in New York.
Michigan's 1981 "Poletown" decision taking land for "public benefit" instead of "public use" was cited in Didden's "white paper" (linked on cvs4pcny site).
That "Poletown" ruling was reversed by the Michigan Supreme Court (July 30. 2004) here...http://courts.michigan.gov/supremecourt/Clerk/Opinions-03-04-Term/124070.pdf
A clear case of extortion.
I think many of these holier than thou conservatives are actually DU operatives agitating to cause divisions in the conservative movement. After all it worked so well in the last election.
If I remember my history correctly there was a little thing called slavery that was the nexus for the formation of the Republican Party.
I don’t really see an issue like slavery out there to rally a new power base political party around. Property Rights I don’t think has the force of gravity about it that slavery did, it just is not going to draw huge numbers of people. The number of people affected by eminent domain seizures is not that great.
I agree with “Mark was here” when he says that both parties have abandoned the Constitution. But then the Constitution was abandoned pretty much as soon as it was ratified.
The "Poletown" reversal came in the lawsuit against the Pinnacle Aeropark Project...part of The State of Michigan's own Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) "smartzones" here...
http://www.michigan.org/medc/smartzones/szsum/pinnacleaeropark/index.asp
It's no wonder why Michigans economy is faltering. "Smartzones" and "coolcities" are terms that would make Richard Florida proud.
In other words, would've been better to avoid dealing with Stalin in WWII and just taken our lumps then from the Germans. I guess.
Maybe they are DUmmies. But I'm afraid they're for real.
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