Click here for an article by Scott Bullock, an attorney with the Institute for Justice.

Voters can act to ‘Save Our Homes’

By Timothy Sandefur

Californians worried about local governments abusing their powers of eminent domain can rejoice in the news that the Protect Our Homes Act has officially qualified to appear on this November’s ballot.

The Secretary of State’s office announced Tuesday that it had verified 683,712 of about 1 million signatures for the initiative, which would protect individuals and small-business owners from having their land seized and transferred to other private holders.

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Click here to read an interesting observation from Daren Bakst of the John Locke Foundation.

Click here to read Joyce’s commentary.

Click below to read an EXCELLENT editorial on the legislature’s failure to protect the property rights of North Carolinians:

The Fayetteville Observer’s View: Cheap legislative tricks won’t assuage the public’s anger

From the John William Pope Civitas Institute:

Eminent Domain Amendment Evicted

The House leadership revealed their position on the issue of eminent domain on Tuesday. After giving committee members and bill sponsors 15 minutes notice, the Judiciary III Committee re-referred House Bill 2213 to the Rules Committee on a party line vote. Representative Paul Stam (R-Wake) discovered his bill was on the committee’s agenda just minutes before the meeting.

RALEIGH – Kieran Shanahan, Chairman of the N. C. Property Rights Coalition, commented on yesterday’s meeting of the N.C. House Judiciary 3 Committee. The committee refused to hear a bill calling for an amendment to the state constitution to prevent governments from using eminent domain authority to take land for private economic development projects. The bill, which was sent to the House Rules Committee to die without fair consideration, was introduced by Representative Paul Stam.

The following was distributed by the Civitas Institute last week:

The issue of eminent domain was brought up on the floor of the House of Representatives during Wednesday’s session. The U.S. Supreme Court, in the now infamous Kelo v The City of New London case, has upheld the seizure of private land by government for economic development purposes.

Representative Paul Stam (R-Wake) filed House Bill 2213 on May 17 to amend North Carolina’s Constitution to only allow eminent domain for expressly public purposes. On the next day, it was referred to the Judiciary III Committee where it has been ever since.

Last night, the South Carolina Legislature passed a proposed amendment to the State Constitution that provides home and business owners across the state with meaningful protection against eminent domain abuse. The amendment, which will appear on the November 2006 ballot, specifically prohibits municipalities from condemning private property for “the purpose or benefit of economic development, unless the condemnation is for public use.” It further requires that an individual property be a danger to public health and safety for it to be designated as “blighted,” closing a loophole that enabled local governments to use eminent domain for private use under the State’s previously broad blight definition. The amendment also removes provisions of the State Constitution that specifically allow several counties to use eminent domain for private uses.

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We’ve just had the first anniversary of the Kelo decision (your property is your property but only if, like, no one else will pay more taxes on it) and the blog Division of Labour has a listing of what those fine upstanding citizens, the local and State governments of the country, have been doing with it. My favorite was the first one listed:

“In Hercules, CA, the city council on May 23, 2006, unanimously voted to seize property acquired by Wal-Mart, in order to prevent the retail giant from opening a store in town.”

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