Sunday, June 26, 2005
Waxing Libertarian On Eminent Domain
A comment at SCOTUS blog: “I actually worry that political opposition to eminent domain may go too far, as it has in Japan, where completion of the second runway at Tokyo’s Narita Airport has proved to be impossible.”
I wonder if that is really the case. It seems to me that the original ‘public use’ cause was rather widely accepted; extrapolating from that some penumbral cause for economic development wherein a single private entity clearly profits is being roundly criticized.
Appropriating a stolid home or two sitting in a sea of blacktop so that a crucial second runway- already invested in to the nines- can be completed… well, that’s one thing. (A thing that benefits the majority and can rarely be realized wholly via the private sector.) Leveling a residential block to make room for additional shopping space as a local economic booster shot is quite another. I’d be hard-pressed to find someone who can’t tell the difference.
Posted on June 26, 2005 01:18 AM. Permalink 