EMINENT DOMAIN….Stephen Bainbridge reprints a graphic from today’s Wall Street Journal showing that in the wake of the Kelo decision, which ruled that the constitution doesn’t prohibit governments from using eminent domain to take land for economic development, states are beginning to enact laws that restrict the use of eminent domain for the purpose of economic development.
Without taking a specific stand on any of the proposed statutes, this strikes me as the best possible result. The Supreme Court shouldn’t have invented a new constitutional restriction on eminent domain, but state and local governments should enact laws that limit land grabs designed solely to increase tax revenue. And if different states want different rules, and want to apply those rules differently in different areas, that’s fine too.
So far, this all seems to be working out pretty well.
