At 04:56 PM 05/09/2003 -0700, Bill Frantz wrote:
Perhaps there is a reason that the 5th amendment provided for eminent domain. And, given the government camel nose under the tent, how far do
Eminent domain gets used for all kinds of appalling things - it's not just governments building roads or military bases, or even governments taking land for government-run activities. It's also used for shopping malls and such where the government thinks it can get higher property tax revenues or "improve" the city or increase campaign contributions from real estate developers, and in the past it was used for "urban renewal", i.e. tearing down housing inhabited primarily by black people. In the past year, some major big-box retailer chain had a shareholder proposal to never use eminent domain to acquire their building sites, and management found a way to get it not to be voted on, as opposed to just voting against it. I don't think it was Walmart.