Florida city considers eminent domain

Surprise, in line with New London, Conn., Florida is now using eminent domain to remove an entire town as The Washington Times reports:

In the Kelo ruling, a divided Supreme Court held that private development offering jobs and increased tax revenues constituted a public use of property, but the court held that state legislatures can draft eminent-domain statutes to their satisfaction.

Dana Berliner, senior lawyer with the Institute for Justice, which represented homeowners in the Kelo case, said "pie in the sky" expectations like those expressed by Mr. Brown are routine in all these cases.

"They always think economic redevelopment will bring more joy than what is there now," she said. "Once someone can be replaced so something more expensive can go where they were, every home and business in the country is subject to taking by someone else."

Last week, the Riviera Beach City Council tapped the New Jersey-based Viking Inlet Harbor Properties LLC to oversee the mammoth 400-acre redevelopment project.

"More than 2,000 homes could be eligible for confiscation," said H. Adams Weaver, a local lawyer who is assisting protesting homeowners.

It's rare when I find a lawyer to be upright and fair. It seems most Americans have no problems using Federal powers to coerce society into their imagined utopia. I've noticed the more one respects and honors the Constitution (and it's intentions) the less likely they are to judge the Feds have rights to arbitrarily confiscate private property at will.

In essence, the more likely they're not liberals.*


*It matters not what one calls himself, it matters what one believes to be true and their actions in accordance with those beliefs (i.e. George W. Bush says he's "conservative" yet his record shows him to be Liberal in the broader sense. While he once used conservative rhetoric, now he doesn't even try to hide it). If I were to estimate the time frame he dropped this facade it would be roughly around the end of the last Presidential election.