Reply #98: More from the dissent opinion which I totally concur with

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

Quoting Sandra Day-O'Connor' dissent


"Who among us can say she already makes the most productive or attractive use of her property?" Justice O'Connor asked.

She added: "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."

Both Justice O'Connor and Justice Thomas, who also filed his own dissent, emphasized that the decision's burden would fall on the less powerful and wealthy. "The government now has license to transfer property from those with fewer resources to those with more," Justice O'Connor said. "The Founders cannot have intended this perverse result."]

The quote above is from the NYT article.

The text below is taken from her dissent.

How much the government does or does not desire to benefit a favored private party has no bearing on whether an economic development taking will or will not generate secondary benefit for the public. And whatever the reason for a given condemnation, the effect is the same from the constitutional perspective--private property is forcibly relinquished to new private ownership.