A big victory for restoring private property rights

Property rights advocates across the country are cheering for the U.S. House of Representatives, which unanimously passed the Private Property Rights Protection Act on a voice vote Tuesday. The measure, sponsored by Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., was part of the furious backlash against the U.S. Supreme Court's wildly unpopular 2005 decision in Kelo v. City of New London, which approved taking property from one private citizen and giving it to another for the purpose of "economic development." Specifically, five of the nine justices voted that it was permissible to take Susette Kelo's little pink bungalow and the homes of her neighbors, and use the ground under them for a multimillion-dollar urban redevelopment project. Eminent domain condemnations must satisfy the Fifth Amendment's takings clause -- "nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation." The Kelo decision muddied the meaning of "public use" by claiming that an urban redevelopment project might produce economic benefits that might be a public purpose that might be a public use...more