Thanks to This Supreme Court Decision, the Government Could Seize Your Living Room

Take a look around your living room. There’s a risk that it could become part of a food court in a mall or an assembly line in a factory.

This is possible because of a decision handed down 10 years ago this month by the U.S. Supreme Court. In Kelo v. City of New London, the court ruled that private property can be seized and transferred to another private party for economic development. In the case, the city of New London, Conn., seized the homes of Susette Kelo and other property owners in order to revitalize the city.

A decade later, Congress still has not taken meaningful action to address this attack on property rights—despite overwhelming bipartisan support to do so. This failure by Congress needs to end this year.

Under the Fifth Amendment, private property may be seized only for a public use. Kelo effectively deleted “public use” from the Fifth Amendment. As Justice Sandra Day O’Connor famously said in her dissent, “The specter of condemnation hangs over all property. Nothing is to prevent the State from replacing any Motel 6 with a Ritz-Carlton, any home with a shopping mall, or any farm with a factory.”

While the threat of economic development takings can impact everyone, lower-income individuals are the most at risk, victims of a “reverse Robin Hood effect”—taking from the poor and giving to the rich. After all, cities typically seek out inexpensive properties that are not generating the desired economic benefits and transfer those properties to private parties that government officials think will help with economic development. (Read more from “Thanks to This Supreme Court Decision, the Government Could Seize Your Living Room” HERE)

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