Why the newfound public concern for the protection of private property rights? The issue reached critical mass this year when, in a severely misguided ruling, the United States’ Supreme Court put private property owners rights at serious risk nationwide.
In June of 2005, the US Supreme court dealt property owners a cruel blow when, they allowed the City of New London, Connecticut to take peoples’ homes along the waterfront and give them to a private developer because the new development would provide higher tax revenues to the city.
By those standards, even a church located on a major street or intersection would also be highly vulnerable to economic development as practiced by the cities. A church, which produces little or no tax revenues, would in the eyes of government have less public benefit than a hotel or shopping center. Wow! Government confiscating churches. That could never happen … right? Don’t bet on it. Under the Kelo decision, no home, no church, no family business, or farm is safe from the ravenous appetite of Government seeking more revenues.
Justice Sandra Day O’Connor in opposition to the Kelo ruling wrote, “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.” (Kelo v. City of New London).
The States will now have to offer the protections that were lost in the Kelo case. So … while the federal courts are busy eroding personal property rights, state legislatures across the country are gearing up to strengthen them. And the Arizona legislature is ready for this fight as well.
The good news is that our State Constitution affords Arizonans more private property rights protection than the US Constitution does according to the 5-4 split Kelo decision. A difference of just one Supreme vote would have had the effect of protecting the entire nation from confiscations of this type. (A sobering reminder why fighting for quality Supreme Court Justices is so important.)
But injustice could be just a council decision away. The public never knows for sure what deals are struck behind the closed doors of executive sessions. One thing I do know. The Legislature will be working hard this session to keep Governments’ hands off your property.
