Better yet

The Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel today has an editorial on eminent domain. What drove the paper to write on the subject was the recent business still ongoing in Hollywood Florida.

Eminent Domain
South Florida Sun-Sentinel Editorial Board
Posted July 22 2005

ISSUE: Hollywood has used eminent domain to claim two private properties for purposes of economic development.

The full impact of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on eminent domain is beginning to be felt at the local level. Just ask the Mach family of Hollywood.

They've owned a small retail building in the city for 34 years, but that means nothing to the Hollywood City Commission, which last month voted to take their property and give it to a developer who wants to build condominiums.

Don't be coy Sun-Sentinel. His name is Chip Abele

Believe it or not.That didn't sit well with a lot of folks around town, but the city ignored the outrage, armed with last month's decision by the high court in Washington, which ruled that economic development can be a legitimate "public use" justifying the invocation of eminent domain.

So smug are city officials that they did the same thing again this month, voting to force a private business to sell some of its property so another developer can build more condos. While the city licks its chops over the prospect of increased tax revenue, the city attorney smugly cites the Supreme Court.

What the city doesn't seem to have noticed is that the court said eminent domain could be used in this way, but it didn't say it had to be. Local governments are still free to do the right thing if they're so inclined, which apparently Hollywood is not. State legislatures also are free to enact laws limiting the use of eminent domain.

This kind of taking could get out of hand, and fast. The state Legislature must act at the soonest possible time to tighten state laws regarding the taking of private property, and to make clear that economic development is not a legitimate public use in Florida except in cases of extreme blight or crime infestation.

I agree with the Sun-Sentinel that the state legislature should tighten the rules. But to the point that eminent domain can only be used in instances where the government uses the land for public purposes. Other wise sweetheart and or crooked deals like the ones going on in Hollywood will continue.

Either an end to these public holdups or a revolution will happen in this country. Our crooked politicians and courts better watch out. Because the People will only take so much bullshit.