Steven Greenhut

Abuse of Power: How the government misuses eminent domain is a very effective attack on the practice of governments (mostly municipal, but state as well) using eminent domain to take land from one person and give it to another (usually a well-connected individual or business) at very low cost to the transferee.

Steven Greenhut relates many examples of the use of what is supposed to be a very seldom used governmental power to benefit the rich and powerful usually at the expense of the weak and poor. Eminent domain is supposed to be used solely for the public benefit (e.g., for building schools, roads, hospitals, etc.), but Greenhut points out that most uses of it today are done to facilitate the construction of private business investments, be they new housing developments or shopping centers or amusement parks. In the very recent past, the idea of economic development as a public benefit warranting the use of eminent domain has come into vogue and has, unfortunately, been endorsed by a majority of the U.S. Supreme Court (see the Kelo v. City of New London case from 2005).

Greenhut points out that not only has the practice of eminent domain been abused by governments to benefit their friends, but that the compensation being paid for these properties is oftentimes not "just" as required by the Constitution. It rarely even amounts to the fair market value of the property as is, let alone what value it will have when it is put to its new use.

Greenhut does present a program for attempting to change the current pattern of abuse, but little of this program will have much of an effect until the American people start electing representatives who actually take the ideas of liberty and freedom seriously, instead of just mouthing those words as political props.… (meer)