Eminent Domain, and the Making of a Citizen Politician
By Vincent Fiore (06/29/05)
Over the weekend, a good friend of mine left a message on my answering machine, which at first I didn’t recognize, because his voice was so shaken with rage and desperation. But after a brief moment, I realized that it was my buddy, Danny, from the firehouse.
Danny is as calm and collected a man as I have had the privilege of knowing. To hear the agitation in his voice was something that I could not associate with him.
Living on the south shore of New York’s Long Island, Danny was naturally drawn to the sea. Besides a love for the ocean, Danny also had a love of country, specifically the military services. So in 1976, citizen Danny became seaman recruit Danny, serving in the finest tradition in the United States Coast Guard, and in the footsteps of his family.
Danny can trace back his family’s lineage and military service back to the Civil War of 1861, in which his great-grandfather fought and bled at Gettysburg. Danny’s father and uncles fought in the wars that have involved the United States from time to time, including fighting alongside this country greatest general, George S. Patton. Danny has a family tree whose roots run deep with regard to patriotism and service to the country.
Danny went through ten weeks of rigorous boot camp upon joining the Coast Guard. The knowledge that better men had come before him aided his passage through those weeks of drill instructor-inflicted “torture,” and the belief that the sacrifice he was making was of little consequence when taken in the context of serving one’s country.
For those who think the Coast Guard is nothing more than DWI patrol for drunken boaters and wayward jet skiers, think again. In times of war, as the United States is in now, the Coast Guard answers to the Department of the Navy. The Coast Guard patrols the shores of Long Beach, Long Island on the Atlantic Seaboard to Long Beach, California on the Pacific Coast, and is presently patrolling the shores of the Mina al Bakr oil terminal, 13 miles off the coast of Iraq.
Upon leaving the Coast Guard in 1986 as a boatswain mate first class, Danny then became a firefighter for the Fire Department of New York, and found a home among a brotherhood that is no less sacrificing then the servicemen and women of the U.S. armed forces. The world knows this to be true, as it and Danny--firsthand--witnessed the carnage of September 11 that brought down the twin towers upon thousands, including 343 of “the bravest” of the FDNY.
What could shake a man such as Danny, a man who has virtually served his country since adulthood, witnessed the attacks and the death of September 11, and presently braves the infernos of New York City?
I never would have thought that a mere court ruling could do this, but upon hearing the decision of the Supreme Court in the case, Kelo v. New London, a chill has apparently crept through Danny. In its 5-4 rendering, the court ruled that local governments may use eminent domain (the Fifth Amendment) to take people’s homes and businesses and turn them over to private developers. (www.ij.org/private_property/connecticut/)
Writing for the majority, Justice John Paul Stevens said: “Clearly, there is no basis for exempting economic development from our traditionally broad understanding of public purpose.” The term “public use,” which Justice Stevens redefined as “public purpose,” has nearly always been used by state and federal governments as the need to build public highways, dams, water filtration plants and the like arose.
With the injection of the words “public purpose” as used by the court’s majority, local governments can now grab land under the economic primer of generating more tax revenue.
As Justice Thomas, writing in the dissent said: “The court has erased the Public Use Clause from our Constitution.”
(www.nytimes.com/2005/06/23/politics/23wire-scotus.html?ei=5065&en=863d5efe6...)
Perhaps the most poignant comments of the court’s dissent came from sometime-conservative, sometime-liberal Justice Sandra Day O’Connor: “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.”
Setting aside the court’s legal gymnastics and artful prose in their ruling, people will understand the essence of the court’s far-reaching and home-owner rights-obliterating pronouncement: The concept of property ownership in America is in peril.
So fundamental has the right of private property and ownership been to America since its very founding that its first vice-president, and eventual second U.S. president, John Adams, said: “Property is surely a right of mankind as real as liberty.”
Some might think that I am naive in this, but it is my belief that this may be the issue that unites liberals and conservatives--Democrats and Republicans, greens and libertarians, and all the other political groups that vie for dominance. After all, everybody believes in the right, and millions experience the delight, of property ownership in America.
Now, because of the desire to create and legislate from the bench as the courts are wont to do these days, nobody need only fear the WalMart-type corporations taking over their towns and cities. The courts have now made it possible for a single individual with local political pull and a future-tax revenue projection to come in and usurp one of hearth and home.
In Ronald Reagan’s Farewell Address to the Nation on January 11, 1989, he said: “Back in the 1960’s, when I began, it seemed to me that we'd begun reversing the order of things--that through more and more rules and regulations and confiscatory taxes, the government was taking more of our money, more of our options, and more of our freedom. I went into politics in part to put up my hand and say, ‘Stop.’ I was a citizen politician, and it seemed the right thing for a citizen to do.”
Today, Danny holds his hand up to say “stop.” Having been politically deaf for most of his life, he has gone from being citizen Danny, to seamen-recruit Danny, to firefighter Danny, and now to possibly the biggest challenge of his life, citizen-politician Danny. He will advocate against the rulings of a misguided Supreme Court.
I believe that there are many more Dannys out there, and I further believe that within the homes of America, being a citizen politician will no longer be a luxury, but a necessity of liberty. It is time to spill some tea all over again.
Vincent Fiore is a freelance political writer who lives in New York City.
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