Angry in the Great White North
The Kelo Decision
Thursday, June 23, 2005 at 03:57 PM

Read other posts by Steve Janke published by the National Post
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South of the border, American bloggers are up in arms over the Kelo decision. As quoted by Michelle Malkin:

A divided Supreme Court ruled Thursday that local governments may seize people's homes and businesses against their will for private development in a decision anxiously awaited in communities where economic growth often is at war with individual property rights.

The 5-4 ruling represented a defeat for some Connecticut residents whose homes are slated for destruction to make room for an office complex. They argued that cities have no right to take their land except for projects with a clear public use, such as roads or schools, or to revitalize blighted areas.

As a result, cities now have wide power to bulldoze residences for projects such as shopping malls and hotel complexes in order to generate tax revenue.

Now understand that the situation is different for our American friends. They do still have a fundamental right to private property. If the state decides that property is needed for some public purpose, compensation must be provided as per the Fifth Amendment.

The furor is over how the scope of "public use" has been dramatically increased to include private property of use to the public, and that anger is justified in my view.

Still, they have it much better than we do here,

In Canada the Authorson decision made it clear that the Canadian government can take anything from anyone at anytime, no compensation, no warning, no nuttin'. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the government is essentially unfettered by any restriction. The Americans have taken a huge and dangerous step in that direction.

[As you can see from the strikeout, my thinking has evolved overnight, and I've come to believe that the Kelo decision is far worse than I originally thought.]

[Kevin Libin at the Western Standard walks us through the details.

Captain Ed and QandO gives us an extended analysis from the American point of view.]

[Update: Apparently this is shaping up to become a blogswarm in the United States. Why not a debate in Canada about our property rights, or lack thereof?]

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