Oh, Sweet Irony…
For those of you who don’t know, the Supreme Court recently ruled in the case of Kelo v. New London that the government can use its powers of eminent domain not just for “public use” (e.g., roads, dams, and so on), but also for development by private owners. Their reasoning? Handing the land over to private developers will result in more tax revenue, which somehow qualifies as “public use.” In one fell swoop, the 5 more statist justices of the Supreme Court sent our property rights down the toilet, most likely never to be recovered again.
That’s why it warms my heart to read this:
PLAINFIELD, N.H. – Libertarians upset about a Supreme Court ruling on land taking have proposed seizing a justice’s vacation home and turning it into a park, echoing efforts aimed at another justice who lives in the state.
Organizers are trying to collect enough signatures to go before the town next spring to ask to use Justice Stephen G. Breyer’s 167-acre Plainfield property for a “Constitution Park” with stone monuments to commemorate the U.S. and New Hampshire constitutions.
Plainfield will never agree to it, of course; laws only apply to the little guy, never the people who make them or judge them. Still, as a symbolic gesture, I think it does some good.
If we can no longer rely on the system of checks and balances to restrain government power, it’s important the people become a check themselves. And if we can use a Supreme Court edict against the very statists who made it possible, all the better.
