Reply #45: An interesting issue--property rights

[CoolOnion]

In my opinion, property rights will be more of a hot button issue than Roe v. Wade; even right-wing nutcases like Cornyn and DeLay are coming out against the Supreme Court Ruling on property rights:

Texans leading attack on eminent domain ruling
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/12033059.htm
(reg erq)

Excerpt:
"House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Sugar Land joined forces with Sen. John Cornyn of Texas and other lawmakers Thursday in pledging to undo a Supreme Court ruling that allows governments to seize private property for economic development.

(snip)

"We will be working together to accomplish our goal, which is to rein back in this broad interpretation of the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution in a way that protects all of us from the awesome power of government to take private property for private uses," said Cornyn, R-Texas.

"<b>That is anathema to our basic core values in this country, and it turns the Founding Fathers' vision of what this country was like on its head</b>."

Excuse me, John Cornyn, but isn't that how Shrubya got the Ball Park at Arlington, by using eminent domain? Why, yes, I believe it was. (See "Stealing Home," Texas Observer, May 9, 1997: http://www.mollyivins.com/showMisc.asp?FileName=970509_... )

Maybe the recent eminent domain case will make our conservatives look for another thoughtful judge like O'Connor, a strong, intelligent independent voice, free from ideology of either stripe.