Regarding The Star’s article “Eminent domain battle is civil rights issue” (4/28, Opinion): Property rights are not just a civil rights issue. Property rights issues affect everyone. There are many examples in the Kansas City area.
Loch Lloyd annexed an area that voted against the annexation. Belton took a privately owned farm so a home improvement store could be built. A neighborhood was blighted so that the Kansas Speedway could be built. Without a vote, Overland Park annexed a large area. Stilwell does not have a say about its future.
Individual property rights must be strengthened. Nature is not blight. Contact your elected officials about these issues.
George Fowler
Kansas City
Tom K
IMO the framers of the Constitution would be in unanimous agreement with you. Unfortunately, the left wing of the present Supreme Court does not.
Posted by: Engineer | May 12, 2008 at 10:19 PM
Speedways and home improvement stores do not justify ceasing property by abusing eminent domain.
Posted by: Tom K | May 12, 2008 at 09:32 PM
George Fowler seems to have trouble differentiating between annexation and condemnation. Adding areas to a City is annexation. The owners of the properties annexed remain the owners. The results of annexation may not be to the property owners' liking. , That is why all Johnson County residents should say "Blessed be the State line”.
Posted by: Engineer | May 12, 2008 at 04:55 PM
NYAJ
Can you list some of those? Conservative judges usually consider that the Constitution is a written document that means what it says and does not have "penumbras"?
Posted by: Engineer | May 12, 2008 at 04:42 PM
We can thank conservative judges for a lot more losses of freedom and civil liberties.
Posted by: Stifled Freedom | May 12, 2008 at 02:44 PM
We can thank our liberal supreme courts justices, Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, and John Paul Stevens for greatly expanding the government's eminent domain powers.
I guess it's not surprising that liberals, who don't really believe in private property ownership anyway, would be the ones to do the most damage to our private property rights.
Posted by: Chris40 | May 12, 2008 at 11:47 AM
Many states have acted to fix this legislatively. MO I would expect to do so. KS...no way. KS govt represents itself. Has either state acted?
Posted by: Stifled Freedom | May 12, 2008 at 09:52 AM