i wish i could draw

[acroyear]

Idea for a political cartoon:

A plot of land with a sign on it that says "Connecticutt Ave", with two very definitely "Monopoly" green houses next to each other.  In front of that is a poor-looking family of four facing a tie-and-coat business man handing them money and saying, "Well, sign here says price $100, so here's $100 as your just compensation."  The caption on the tie-and-coat is "Property Developers".  Behind them is a giant forklift carrying a giant red "Monopoly" hotel, about to drop it on top of the houses.  The caption on the forklift says, "Supreme Court".

Comments

[caseylane.livejournal.com]

My jaw dropped when I heard that ruling. I'm waiting for the petition to get this put on the ballot so I can vote against it. Unfuckingbelievable.

its not so simple as a "law" anymore

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

this is a direct interpretation of the Constitution, 5th Amendment.

as such, no law can reverse this decision and it has the potential to override state constitutions (and popularly-elected amendments to said state constitutions for those states that have them) as a result. The only thing that can change this is an amendment to the constitution clarifying this result.

That amendment needs 2/3 house, 2/3 senate, president, and 2/3rds state approval.

Its not going to happen. FAR too many elected officials get their money from developers and have no intention of biting the hand that feeds them.

Re: its not so simple as a "law" anymore

[thatwasjen]

no law can reverse this decision and it has the potential to override state constitutions

Not so. From the SCOTUS opinion:
"We emphasize that nothing in our opinion precludes any State from placing further restrictions on its exercise of the takings power. Indeed, many States already impose 'public use' requirements that are stricter than the federal baseline. Some of these requirements have been established as a matter of state constitutional law, while others are expressed in state eminent domain statutes that carefully limit the grounds upon which takings may be exercised."

Re: its not so simple as a "law" anymore

[rsteachout.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Only 7 states (MD and VA are not among them) have such restrictions on their eminent domain laws. *Only* CT has a law expressly allowing eminent domain takings to be given to a private entity.

The thing to do is to contact members of your state legislature and convince them to make this a law in their next or current session (about 1/3 of the states -- including VA and MD -- are already out of session). Then get involved in helping draft the law and build support for it. Make sure the state politicians know that the issue is important and that not supporting it will cost them votes.