Wow. This is bad. Very bad. How could anybody possibly see Wal-Marts and hotels and other private development as deserving of eminent domain?
My father's business was almost destroyed 40 years ago when the Commonwealth of Virginia condemned his auto shop and land and paid him about $.10 on the dollar for it, in order to build a four-lane bypass through it. He had to relocate and rebuild miles away on other property he owned. I can't even imagine the same thing happening just so a private owner can put in a business that'll kick back tax revenue to a municipality so they can spend it to increase their power!
}:-)4
"I can't even imagine the same thing happening just so a private owner can put in a business that'll kick back tax revenue to a municipality so they can spend it to increase their power!"
Don't you understand? Being poor or middle class does not best serve the common good (read scum sucker pockets). Such people must be discarded from the tax base as they serve no public use. /sarc
They pulled the same thing on home owners in my parents neighbourhood in charlottesville for the proposed 29 bypass....which has yet to be built.
I'm very nervous about this ruling as our city and county governments have already demonstrated a supremem lack of respect for property rights.
In the 1981 Poletown decision, the Michigan Supreme Court allowed the City of Detroit to bulldoze an entire neighborhood, complete with more than 1,000 residences, 600 businesses, and numerous churches, in order to give the property to General Motors for an auto plant. That case set the precedent, both in Michigan and across the country, for widespread abuse of the power of eminent domain. It sent the signal that courts would not interfere, no matter how private the purpose of the taking.
ick....and 6-3 as well.
We really need 2 new conservatives on that court.
Eminent domain was not intended for Wal-Mart.
Wow. This is bad..........
Sure is. I am in exactly the position described. I have a small house on 1/3 acre, completely surrounded by the local tycoon who (with others) are wanting to put in a mall and other associated establishments. Rumor says something going on that would devalue said property. I've had the property for almost twenty years and was planning on cashing in for retirement nest egg.
My anger is beyond description!!!
The Great Wal-Mart of China is just gonna love this!