Estimated reading time: 3 minute(s)
Don’t know if you’ve heard or not, but the Supreme Court decided this week that it would be OK for local governments to take private property against the will of the landowner to develop it as they see fit. In the case in question it is to create a commercial center that will raise tax revenue, thus decreasing the burden on the community. That complies (so says the SC) with the original intent of the 5th Ammendment, where if land was deemed necessary for “public use” the local government could possess the land for “just compensation” (a strange provision in our constitution, I think).
Problem is, if they call a shopping mall “public use”, who really has any rights as a property owner? Anyone can come in and say, I want this land for “public use”… and the rich get richer and the powerful get more powerful.
Scary.