RE: I cannot understand what the controversy is. Eminent Domain is in the Constitution. Trump has no control over Eminent Domain. All our highways have been built as a result of Eminent Domain.
The intended purpose of eminent domain, is to allow government to acquire properties for true public uses like a highway ( as you mentioned) or a school or critical public infrastructure or defense of the nation.
The Kelo decision that Trump still says he supports DID NONE OF THAT.
It opened the door to even more eminent domain mischief. Eminent domain was already a useful tool for the politically friendly developer, who is only too happy to enlist the force of government to aggregate properties that are difficult to acquire one by one.
The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in favor of the city, but the minority (Justices O’Connor, Scalia, and Thomas, along with Chief Justice William Rehnquist) wrote extremely heated dissenting opinions. Thomas warned: “Today’s decision is simply the latest in a string of our cases construing the Public Use Clause to be a virtual nullity, without the slightest nod to its original meaning. In my view, the Public Use Clause, originally understood, is a meaningful limit on the government’s eminent domain power. Our cases have strayed from the clause’s original meaning, and I would reconsider them.”
As it turned out, the City of New London’s great economic plan never came to fruition and the properties it seized stand 13 years later as a huge vacant lot, after the city and state governments blew $78 million bulldozing the properties.
THAT is what you should understand as to why this is a controversy.
“THAT is what you should understand as to why this is a controversy.”
Okay, draw a line in the sand over that one. Then turn around and vote for someone who votes for TPA/TPP that ransacks the entire American economy.
And ALL the Republican candidates except Trump are for amnesty.
Did you hear Rush relate the findings from Senator Sessions about the projection of legal immigration for the next 40 years? By 2060, there will be 7 births from foreigners to 1 American birth.
But you can comfort yourself with the sure knowledge that you traded Kelo for the country.