Op Ed: Your home is no longer your castle
By Brian Irving, LPNC Press Secretary
DURHAM - Your home is no longer your castle.
Libertarians aren't surprised by the U.S. Supreme Court decision in
Kelo vs. New London. It's just another link in a "long train of abuses and
usurpations" by the Federal government to annul individual rights.
Some local government experts claim this ruling wouldn't affect North
Carolina property owners because state law lists only nine reasons for the
exercise of eminent domain by the state.
This is small comfort to people who have their property taken for any
reason. It's no comfort to people subjected to forced annexation, another
way government takes property without the owner's consent.
The Supreme Court has routinely overturned state laws and
constitutions. If five justices can decide "public use" means whatever a
local government says it does, then private property ownership is
meaningless. Next, they could just as easily say "just compensation" is
whatever a local government says it is.
Nor can you rely on state officials to enforce the state laws or the
constitution that supposedly protect your property rights. They've already
revealed their untrustworthiness by routinely using money raised for one
purpose for another and casually transforming a "temporary" sales tax hike
into a permanent increase.
This ruling legitimizes what local governments have been doing for
years, nullifying property rights not only through eminent domain and
asset forfeiture, but with other schemes like forced annexation and zoning
regulations - all in the name of "the public good," "economic
development," or "the quality of life."
"Government is instituted to protect property of every sort," wrote James
Madison, author of the Constitution. "This being the end of government,
that alone is a just government which impartially secures to every man,
whatever is his own."
Rights aren't granted by law, by any constitution or by government.
These institutions are set up to protect your rights. Your rights derive
from the fact you are a human being. The Constitution established a
Federal Republic with specific, limited powers whose sole purpose was to
protect individual rights.
This ruling subverts that purpose.
We can only assure our rights are protected by electing people - from
city council to President - who will honor and respect them. The
Libertarian Party has been working toward that goal for years.
We oppose the taking or seizure of private property by government or by
agencies acting upon governmental authority. We support compensation for
owners whose property is devalued or made inaccessible by government
regulations.
Libertarians say: elect people who will pledge, first, to never support
use of the eminent domain power to take property from one individual and
give it to any other individual, business, or corporation. Vote for
those who will pledge to invoke this authority only for its intended
purpose, public use - and only when all other available options have been
exhausted.
Meanwhile, write your county commissioners, state legislators and
congressmen and ask them to make this pledge. Most importantly, judge all
elected officials - including judges - by their actions in protecting
individual rights, not their words.
|
