R.I.P. America, June 23, 2005

America—at least the America founded by the likes of Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Franklin— has officially died.

The AP has the story here: Supreme Court rules cities may seize homes You can find the text of the ruling here.

See my post on where this will lead: Taking Away Your Church Building 

This is not in the least a political blog, but just let me say that we are losing the United States of America one anti-Constitutional judicial decision at a time. And let me also say that this ties in with The Christian & the Business World series I've been writing for weeks now. Eminent domain has only been claimed for government purposes and then not very often. But now the Supreme Court has ruled that private businesses have an interest at least as compelling as the government's to seize land. I can easily see "Christian" business developers pulling rank now in the name of "community leadership" to raze people's homes to put in a shopping mall.

Notice especially the dissenting comment by Justice O'Connor:

The Court rightfully admits, however, that the judiciary cannot get bogged down in predictive judgments about whether the public will actually be better off after a property transfer. In any event, this constraint [ed.- the Court's "public test" clause] has no realistic import. For who among us can say she already makes the most productive or attractive possible use of her property? 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.

She concludes with this:

Any property may now be taken for the benefit of another private party, but the fallout from this decision will not be random. The beneficiaries are likely to be those citizens with disproportionate influence and power in the political process, including large corporations and development firms. As for the victims, the government now has license to transfer property from those with fewer resources to those with more. The Founders cannot have intended this perverse result. "[T]hat alone is a just government," wrote James Madison, "which impartially secures to every man, whatever is his own."

This is classic Darwinian business practices at work, and just another nail in the coffin of the middle class.

Here's the really scary part: What happens when a foreign-owned company tries this here? With government and big business merging, who is to say that the Mexican, Russian, or Chinese governments could not manipulate our country through Mexican, Russian, or Chinese corporate land grabs of private American property? Don't think it can't happen.

God have mercy on our country.