Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Eminent Domain and the 5th Amendment

I recently read about Kelo vs. City of New London. In Kelo, the United States Supreme Court allowed the City of New London to take private property and give it to a developer to make a shopping mall. I think that New London should not be able to do that. The 5th Amendment to the constitution says: ... ; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation. Technically the shopping mall would not be 'public'. The developer would own it, therefore he could limit the accessibility of his mall. Also, the shopping developer would collect rent and other fees and revenue, therefore making money. So it really isn't public if one person would own and would benefit from it. Although New London would make money from taxes, it really doesn't benefit the public, nor is it public use. I think that eminent domain should be restricted or outlawed, or the outlines for just compensation should be raised. Government taking property is not a good thing. Then it would allow the government to possibly abuse its power. 

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