-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Homeowners Need More Protection
Date: 27 Jul 2005 20:50:02 -0000
From: Congresswoman Candice Miller info@candicemiller.house.gov
To: apfn@apfn.org
Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, the right to keep and bear arms and equal justice for all are the cornerstones of our free society. Equally as important as these rights are private property rights, particularly home ownership.
Owning a home, owning your property is the cornerstone of the American dream. Your home is your largest financial investment, but also where your children grow and your photos hang. It's where you experience so many great family memories - from Thanksgiving Dinners to Graduation Parties. It reflects your values, your tastes, and your life.
Private ownership is vital to our freedom and our prosperity, and as far as I am concerned the less government intrusion into our homes the better. A person’s home is truly his castle.
Yet, in a startling recent decision, the Supreme Court of the United States has trampled on the idea of private property ownership and something must be done.
The Court gave local bodies of government broad power to seize private property from one party and give it to another private party. The Court, in a demonstration of judicial overreaching, overruled two centuries of legal precedent and tradition when it allowed local leaders in New London, Connecticut to take one of its communities and hand it over to a group of private development interests. In essence, the Court allowed a city to take a less-affluent part of town - homes, yards, and neighborhoods included -- and sell it off to wealthier people.
This appalling decision disturbingly and indefinitely alters the public use provision of the Fifth Amendment's Takings Clause. The Takings Clause states "nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation." For centuries, it was believed that "public use" in the Takings Clause - or eminent domain clause - meant the construction of roads, schools, and other public necessities. Not private development. While shopping malls or new upscale developments are nice for any community, they are not a necessity and government has no right to say this new home or shopping complex is more important than my home.
In defining "public use" so expansively, this decision erased a key protection of private property as understood by our Founding Fathers. It strikes a blow to the core values of our nation. What's more, this decision has dangerous and far reaching implications.
Whose neighborhood will be knocked down next? Whose dream home destroyed to make way for another’s dream?
Last week, I joined an overwhelming majority of members of the United States House of Representatives to express my disapproval of the Supreme Court's decision.
I've also co-sponsored legislation that would bar state and local governments that engage in this type of eminent domain overreaching from using federal funds to further that development. This bill would also prohibit the federal government from taking private land simply for the sake of economic development. I don’t believe government should be in the business of picking winners and losers.
Perhaps we should keep that question in mind as we listen to the debate to fill the Supreme Court vacancy of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Let us hope that the debate rests on protecting the freedoms of ordinary American citizens and away from the overly partisan attacks that typically degrade this process.
We must replace Justice O'Connor with a strict constructionist and not someone who legislates from the bench. We do not need someone who reads the Constitution in such a way that it dilutes centuries old freedoms.
It was Justice O'Connor who vociferously dissented in the New London case. She wrote, "The specter of condemnation hangs over all property. Nothing is to prevent the state from replacing any Motel 6 with a Ritz-Carlton, any home with a shopping mall, or any farm with a factory." We cannot replace her with a more activist liberal judge, lest we lose more and more of the protections we hold dear.
We cannot and will not stand for the unreasonable, unfair destruction of our own property. To do so, would also mean the destruction of the great American Dream. I will continue to stand up for these rights in Congress. It is my hope that we can have a court that will uphold them as well.
To Unsubscribe go to:
http://candicemiller.house.gov/
Congresswoman Candice Miller | info@candicemiller.house.gov
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Subject: Homeowners Need More Protection
Date: 27 Jul 2005 20:50:02 -0000
From: Congresswoman Candice Miller info@candicemiller.house.gov
To: apfn@apfn.org
Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, the right to keep and bear arms and equal justice for all are the cornerstones of our free society. Equally as important as these rights are private property rights, particularly home ownership.
Owning a home, owning your property is the cornerstone of the American dream. Your home is your largest financial investment, but also where your children grow and your photos hang. It's where you experience so many great family memories - from Thanksgiving Dinners to Graduation Parties. It reflects your values, your tastes, and your life.
Private ownership is vital to our freedom and our prosperity, and as far as I am concerned the less government intrusion into our homes the better. A person’s home is truly his castle.
Yet, in a startling recent decision, the Supreme Court of the United States has trampled on the idea of private property ownership and something must be done.
The Court gave local bodies of government broad power to seize private property from one party and give it to another private party. The Court, in a demonstration of judicial overreaching, overruled two centuries of legal precedent and tradition when it allowed local leaders in New London, Connecticut to take one of its communities and hand it over to a group of private development interests. In essence, the Court allowed a city to take a less-affluent part of town - homes, yards, and neighborhoods included -- and sell it off to wealthier people.
This appalling decision disturbingly and indefinitely alters the public use provision of the Fifth Amendment's Takings Clause. The Takings Clause states "nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation." For centuries, it was believed that "public use" in the Takings Clause - or eminent domain clause - meant the construction of roads, schools, and other public necessities. Not private development. While shopping malls or new upscale developments are nice for any community, they are not a necessity and government has no right to say this new home or shopping complex is more important than my home.
In defining "public use" so expansively, this decision erased a key protection of private property as understood by our Founding Fathers. It strikes a blow to the core values of our nation. What's more, this decision has dangerous and far reaching implications.
Whose neighborhood will be knocked down next? Whose dream home destroyed to make way for another’s dream?
Last week, I joined an overwhelming majority of members of the United States House of Representatives to express my disapproval of the Supreme Court's decision.
I've also co-sponsored legislation that would bar state and local governments that engage in this type of eminent domain overreaching from using federal funds to further that development. This bill would also prohibit the federal government from taking private land simply for the sake of economic development. I don’t believe government should be in the business of picking winners and losers.
Perhaps we should keep that question in mind as we listen to the debate to fill the Supreme Court vacancy of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Let us hope that the debate rests on protecting the freedoms of ordinary American citizens and away from the overly partisan attacks that typically degrade this process.
We must replace Justice O'Connor with a strict constructionist and not someone who legislates from the bench. We do not need someone who reads the Constitution in such a way that it dilutes centuries old freedoms.
It was Justice O'Connor who vociferously dissented in the New London case. She wrote, "The specter of condemnation hangs over all property. Nothing is to prevent the state from replacing any Motel 6 with a Ritz-Carlton, any home with a shopping mall, or any farm with a factory." We cannot replace her with a more activist liberal judge, lest we lose more and more of the protections we hold dear.
We cannot and will not stand for the unreasonable, unfair destruction of our own property. To do so, would also mean the destruction of the great American Dream. I will continue to stand up for these rights in Congress. It is my hope that we can have a court that will uphold them as well.
To Unsubscribe go to:
http://candicemiller.house.gov/
Congresswoman Candice Miller | info@candicemiller.house.gov
------------------
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