Democrats' "KELO" Bill Tramples Private Property Rights

Today House Democrats will bring to the floor legislation that recklessly weakens Americans’ private property rights. The Fifth Amendment holds that private property shall not be taken by the government for public use without just compensation, but H.R. 986 would allow Washington politicians to condemn or restrict the use of private property at will – with or without just compensation.

This dangerous bill echoes the Supreme Court’s misguided 2005 decision in Kelo v. New London which sanctioned the ability of government entities to take any American citizen’s private property, at any time, for virtually any reason that could be defended as a “public use.” In Kelo, government bureaucrats decided that new office buildings and condos were the “public use” that justified their unconstitutional taking of private homes.

After gutting an amendment by Rep. Rob Bishop (R-UT) in committee that would have eliminated the eminent domain-related provisions in H.R. 986, Democrats are bringing the bill to a vote under a closed process that prohibits further amendments designed to protect the rights of American private property owners.

In her stinging Kelo dissent, former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor said the beneficiaries of this extraordinary government power “are likely to be those citizens with disproportionate influence and power in the political process”:

“As for the victims, the government now has license to transfer property from those with fewer resources to those with more. The Founders cannot have intended this perverse result. ‘[T]hat alone is a just government,’ wrote James Madison, ‘which impartially secures to every man, whatever is his own.’”

The Wall Street Journal echoed this theme on the second anniversary of the Kelo decision, noting that the erosion of property rights leaves many Americans “vulnerable to politicians and local officials allied with rich private developers.”

In November 2005, the House passed the Private Property Rights Protection Act (H.R. 2148) with overwhelming bipartisan support. H.R. 986 is a step in the wrong direction for America and our tradition of private property rights, and House Republicans are urged to vote “NO.”

Democrats are wanting to trample on your rights and rip up the Constitution...

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