Unbelievable. Simply incredible. By a 5-4 decision, local governments now how the complete authority to take away PRIVATE PROPERTY from citizens. I'm so shocked by this, I don't know what to write. And if Fox News runs any more stories on the stupid drunk in Aruba, I'm going to bash in my television. Take a look at the lines drawn by this decision, and who made it:
"The city has carefully formulated an economic development that it believes will provide appreciable benefits to the community, including -- but by no means limited to -- new jobs and increased tax revenue," Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the majority.
He was joined by Justice Anthony Kennedy, David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg...no damn surprise there. And the dissenters?
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who has been a key swing vote on many cases before the court, issued a stinging dissent. She argued that cities should not have unlimited authority to uproot families, even if they are provided compensation, simply to accommodate wealthy developers.
The lower courts had been divided on the issue, with many allowing a taking only if it eliminates blight.
"Any property may now be taken for the benefit of another private party, but the fallout from this decision will not be random," O'Connor wrote. "The beneficiaries are likely to be those citizens with disproportionate influence and power in the political process, including large corporations and development firms."
She was joined in her opinion by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, as well as Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.
You're damn right cities shouldn't have that right! This decision is going to have such far-reaching implications...what a country.
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