Eminent Domain Rammed Down Va. Factory Owner's Throat

Kelo v. New London, the 2005 ruling that finished the job of Wikard v.Filburn, effectively destroyed property rights in the US. Predictably, it is now being applied with enthusiasm. In this case the wrong is being committed in the Old Dominion.


In the Commonwealth of Virginia, the City of Norfolk, knowing full well that Kelo released governing bodies from having to prove any compelling public need for a seizure of private property, is in the process of taking a factory that employs people who earn decent wages. The reason for this move? The city wants to sell it to a developer so that retail establishments can be built.

Kelo essentially held that all a town needs to do is state that they can do better by selling someone's property to another. They don't have to show the need for a road, school, hospital, or railroad. The city need not even demonstrate that it are is dire need of revenue to avoid bankrupcty.


-On Kelo:
http://www.ij.org/five-years-after-kelo-the-sweeping-backlash-against-one-of-the-supreme-courts-most-despised-decisions

Here is the link for the article in Fox News that treats the situation in Norfolk:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/07/12/people-speak-business-fights-to-keep-property-from-eminent-domain-in-virginia/?test=latestnews

"For 50 years, Bob Wilson has been making radio parts for the federal government.

Now, the local government in Norfolk, Va., wants to take his factory and the property under it away using its eminent domain powers. And it’s not because Norfolk needs a new public park or a road connector. Wilson says they just want it for "retail space," and thinks that's wrong.

“We just feel it's not right that they should be able to take this,” he said. “It's not morally correct, it's not legally correct.”

Wilson is now supporting “The Virginia Eminent Domain Amendment,” a ballot measure that would prohibit the state from seizing property for private enterprise.

“You shouldn’t be able to take land from one business and give it to another,” said Wilson. “That’s not fair.”

Wilson’s factory, which makes transmission parts and surveillance equipment for the U.S. Navy, sits next to Old Dominion University, a state college which recently built a series of new buildings across the street. Two years ago, The Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority sought the property in order to build retail space for college students, which it calls “economic development.”

"We don't need economic development,” countered Wilson. “We have a hundred employees here that are getting paid good wages. They pay taxes in Norfolk. They are part of the community.' "

Even your basic Liberal dolt knows that the US no longer produces a sufficient number of manufactured goods. Here we have a place that does in fact make things that can be sold and pays wages and benefits that are far better than those that would be offered by retail businesses, and Norfolk wants to ruin that.

With an economy that may very well become even worse once the effects of our national debt begin to be felt, the last thing that we will need are more retailers. I could be generous and refer to this as grossly short-sighted, but the likelihood is that the developer is making sure that money is being paid to someone's campaign fund (Or to a personal account).

The good nature and respect for the law of people are being perceived as weakness. I predict that there will be a breaking point.