By Doug Newman … email me here.
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Posted at the Daily Paul.
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The left has no monopoly on selective indignation. Right-wingers are just as apt to get their whitey-tighties in a wad as left-wingers. The Pledge of Allegiance … the DaVinci Code … Duck Dynasty … and now a Super Bowl ad features people singing a patriotic song in several different languages.
The way people are carrying on you would think it was the end of days.
For those of you in North Korea, here is the offending, treasonous, end-of-civilization-as-we-know-it ad.
Meanwhile, out in real life, a Florida judge has just ruled that the City of Orlando can take church property and build a soccer stadium. This is a total perversion of the principle of eminent domain.
I am not going to go into great detail on eminent domain, as I just don’t have much time. Suffice it to say, though, that eminent domain is the ability of governments to take private property for public purposes. The doctrine of eminent domain requires that the property owners be compensated fairly for their loss.
The Fifth Amendment states “…nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”
Eminent domain had historically been used for things like roads, schools, etc.
In 2005 the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Kelo v. New London that private property could now be taken for private purposes. In this case the beneficiary was pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. I am no prophet, but I vividly remember thinking that this would be used against churches as, unlike Pfizer or pro sports franchises, they do not yield tax revenue.
See that little church down there?
Sure enough, now, a state judge* has ruled that a parcel of private property, which includes a church, can be taken by the city and turned over to a private entity. And I think there have been similar instances of churches being seized elsewhere.
And where are the howls of indignation over this chipping away at our religious liberty and property rights? I hear crickets chirping.
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* This judge was a Republican appointee, as were three of the five in the Kelo majority and five of the seven in the Roe v. Wade majority. No, Republicans don’t “pick better judges.”
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