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Supreme Court Unites Right and Left

Domenick J. Maglio, Ph.D. Neo-Traditionalist

Most of us thought we owned our homes along with the mortgage company. The new reality is, no one has control over the choice to keep his property or sell it. After the Kelo vs. New London Supreme Court decision, the government can take our land to redistribute to others. A bureaucrat with a grudge or a powerful developer with influence can argue that your property is needed for community economic upgrade. Puff, your homestead is no longer yours. It is frightening. We must demand that we will not accept being robbed by the government bureaucracy of our hard earned property.

Americans, whether on the left or right of the political spectrum, are equally alienated by this ruling. Every American believes in the right to private property and rejects government's capricious reallocating these rights to others. Private property is no longer protected by the law of the land. Now local government has the right to take anyone's home anytime without concern for constitutionality. This is un-American and will pervert and be the deathblow of our free enterprise system.

The fifth amendment of the constitution clearly states that government may take one's property for "public use" as long as it provides "just compensation". On the local level, unbeknownst to me and most other Americans, many municipalities have been aggressively using eminent domain to confiscate individual's property. Many liberties have been taken on the local level to distort the purpose of the fifth-amendment. The traditional "public use" of eminent domain such as roads, parks or schools has been mutated to mean private commercial development to enhance the developer's project and increase tax revenue. This is a far cry from "public use".

The Supreme Court had the final power to decide if this was constitutional. They legalized granting politically connected developers the right to take someone's private property for the developer's private profit. The Supreme Court's most liberal judges, in this 5 to 4 decision, went against the literal reading of the constitution to further reduce American's sacred right to their property.

The courts are attempting to dismantle traditional American culture brick by brick through social activism. The courts justification has been special interest rights for atheists, homosexuals, abortion advocates, NAMBLA, affirmative action proponents, and criminals while sacrificing traditional majority rights. These judges have been successful in re-engineering our culture under the guise of individual rights, at the same time they are limiting the rights of the majority. Ironically these same judges who legislate from the bench for increasing one group's rights over the majority are limiting the rights of another, the average American's right to his property.

The same liberal judges rule adamantly for a woman's ownership of her own body (disregarding any claim a potential child might have) yet these same judges now deny everyone's right to ownership of his own home. The court's rationale of liberating minorities through creating rights while granting greater power to the economic elite may appear to be contradictory. When you examine the results it becomes more understandable. The undermining of the traditional culture and/or our property rights both will eventually destroy the freedom and prosperity that are fundamental to our free enterprise system.

The activist court strikes again at the heart of traditional America. The difference is the attack on traditional moral values and social issues had the strong support of the far left while this economic ruling brings both sides together. The assault on our American Dream of economic success through our own effort has united all Americans.

We have been awakened by the courts disregard for a fundamental belief in our right to what we have worked hard to earn. All Americans know it is un-American to take a person's home for the "public good" without extraordinary reasons. Increasing tax revenue or making a developer richer are not justifiable reasons to snatch a person's home.

Let us all join together to repudiate this un-American legislation from the Supreme Court by getting our representatives to legislate that any branch of government cannot take our homes for private reasons.