Omg I HATE Kelo decision! Worst decision in decades! It absolutely subjugates property rights to the whims of the collective. I've commented on it many times here actually, I think.
Honestly, Kelo was a big wake up moment for me, helping me see the true brutality of what our gvt has become. It continues to bother me even over 10 yrs later. Just 2 weeks ago a thought/argument against the Kelo decision it popped into my head. Tell me what you think of this, or if you know whether or not this argument was made in court:
The decision interprets eminent domain to extend to the gvt's interest in increasing tax revenues, not just providing infrastructure, etc. But taxes are CHANGEABLE subject to the will of the elected officials and through the collective will of the people voting for those officials. In theory you could have no or extremely low taxes. It's unlikely but it could happen if the people wanted it strongly enough. So why would the court go so far to extend eminent domain to increase gvt's tax revenue potential at the expense of protecting property rights, which is really maybe THE SINGLE PRIMARY DUTY of the gvt (even defense can be seen as simply protecting property rights), when the issue at the crux of the matter, tax revenues for gvt, is subject to the whims of that local gvt's tax policies and rates, which are necessarily FLEXIBLE?! In theory, instead of using eminent domain to steal property from an unproductive resident to give it to a commercial developer, couldn't the gvt simply raise taxes to meet its needs? Kelo decision basically removes pressure from gvts to act responsibly, and gives them a radical tool to use to "increase revenues" if it decides it is too politically unpalatable to just raise taxes. How can the court have decided the way it did when on one hand is a constitutional and natural right (property rights) and on the other is a flexible, elected-official-decided tax rate number, which can be changed at any time when needed? They favored the wrong hand, that's for sure.
