Liberty
Matters News Service
August 11, 2004
Big Win in Michigan for Private Property
The Michigan Supreme Court has overturned the case that has
allowed cities and local governments to abuse the power of eminent domain for
the last twenty years. In 1981 the Michigan Supreme Court ruled in favor of the
City of Detroit in a lawsuit against the residents of a small community known
as Poletown. In that case, the City evicted residents of the Poletown
neighborhood and demolished 1,400 homes, 140 businesses, including several
churches to make room for a General Motors assembly plant. As the Detroit
police yanked the door from the Immaculate Conception Church and arrested the
parishioners barricaded inside, Reverend Joseph Karasiesicz told reporters;
"This is an evil law and we have to fight it…[T]his has national
implications and national scope. It sets a bad precedent." The Court
unanimously overturned that ruling in a case involving Wayne County's attempt
to confiscate 1,300 privately held acres for a "business and technology" park
that the County claimed would provide thousands of jobs and "tens of millions
in tax revenue." In invalidating the 1981 law the Court said: "Poletown's
economic benefit rationale would validate practically any exercise of the power
of eminent domain on behalf of a private entity. If one's ownership of private
property is forever subject to the government's determination that another
private party would put one's land to better use, then the ownership of real
property is perpetually threatened."
A Court
Rediscovers Property Rights in the Rubble of Poletown
No Fifth Amendment Protection for Virginians
Virginia, home of many of
our Founding Fathers who created these United States, apparently no longer
recognizes the principals set forth in the Constitution of this great nation.
At a recent meeting of the Virginia Institute for Public Policy, speakers
voiced concern that the state is near the "bottom of the barrel" when it comes
to protection of private landowners' rights. Jeremy Hopkins, attorney with
Waldo & Lyle P. C., recently stated that the rights of property owners "are
thoroughly abused in Virginia." Hopkins explained that government agencies use
the power of "quick take" to seize property from its owner. It works like this:
An "agency may file a notice of condemnation, deposit what their appraiser
determines to be a fair value for the land with the local court, and
immediately takes title to the property." Thelma Drake, member of the House of
Delegates hopes to rectify the sad situation with H.B. 822, a bill "to clearly
define when we are allowed to use eminent domain." "Too often," she recently
wrote, "in Virginia and around the nation, property is taken from one
individual only to convey it to another private owner in the name of economic
development."
The Worst Abusers of Property Rights
Chickens Create Foul Mood in Georgia
Residents of the small town
of Fitzgerald, Georgia, are overrun by thousands of wild chickens. The chickens
have the run of the town and are driving people crazy with their pre-dawn
crowing and the messes they leave in their wake. The fowl problem stems from an
attempt by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the 1960's to establish a
population of the Burmese red jungle fowl that would be popular with hunters,
much like the Chinese ringneck pheasant. The experiment failed but the chickens
survived and thrived and they now have taken over the town. At first, residents
were amused by them and encouraged their presence, but now many homeowners want
the birds removed while others, members of the "For the Birds Campaign,"
believe they should remain unmolested. I. Lehr Brisbin Jr., professor of
biology at the University of Georgia, thinks the birds are worthy of study and
if the residents or the poultry industry would come up with $30,000, "a
graduate student could get to know them, live with them, become the Jane
Goodall of chickens and write a thesis." In the meantime, a foul mood pervades
the little town as residents struggle to resolve the chicken
situation.
Wild
Chickens Have the Whole Town Clucking
BLM Auction Nets $493M for Nevada
Proceeds from the auction of Bureau of Land
Management (BLM) property in southern Nevada have generated $493 million for
conservation projects, mostly in Clark County. Interior Secretary Gale Norton
was on hand last week for a photo-op where she turned over the cash to Nevada
officials to use for improving existing facilities and purchase more land for
other conservation purposes. "These funds will go for conservation, recreation,
open-space activities throughout Nevada," Sec. Norton said. The funds were made
available as a result of the 1998 Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act,
with five percent of the proceeds going to the state's school trust fund, 10
percent to the Southern Nevada Water Authority and the rest for conservation,
recreation and environmental purposes. This time, $230 million will be spent to
improve parks, trails and natural areas, $48 million for conservation
initiatives, $88 million for capital improvements and $47 million to buy
environmentally sensitive land, including $1.1 million to purchase inholdings
at Calico Basin in the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area and $15.7
million to buy 24,000 acres of "sensitive" river land in Northern Nevada's
Washoe and Humbolt counties. Today, government's answer to conservation and
environmental problems, which they have mostly created through the use of
federal laws like the Endangered Species Act, is to simply throw tax-payer's
money at it and claim they've solved a problem.
Norton OK's $493 Million for
Nevada Conservation