Americans Fight Back Against Supreme Court

The US Supreme Court recently ruled on “eminent domain” and gave the right to municipalities to take property from private landowners and give it to developers who would pay more in taxes. No Left Turns has lots of links detailing and criticizing this decision (see my previous post on the case).

What’s notable is that all the liberal judges were in the majority, with the conservatives in the minority.

Now, Mickey Craig at No Left Turns observes that a developer in New Hampshire wants a town there to invoke its new power to take over the home of Supreme Court judge David Souter:

On Monday June 27, Logan Darrow Clements, faxed a request to Chip Meany the code enforcement officer of the Towne of Weare, New Hampshire seeking to start the application process to build a hotel on 34 Cilley Hill Road. This is the present location of Mr. Souter’s home. Clements, CEO of Freestar Media, LLC, points out that the City of Weare will certainly gain greater tax revenue and economic benefits with a hotel on 34 Cilley Hill Road than allowing Mr. Souter to own the land. The proposed development, called “The Lost Liberty Hotel” will feature the “Just Desserts Café” and include a museum, open to the public, featuring a permanent exhibit on the loss of freedom in America. Instead of a Gideon’s Bible each guest will receive a free copy of Ayn Rand’s novel “Atlas Shrugged.” Clements indicated that the hotel must be built on this particular piece of land because it is a unique site being the home of someone largely responsible for destroying property rights for all Americans. “This is not a prank” said Clements, “The Towne of Weare has five people on the Board of Selectmen. If three of them vote to use the power of eminent domain to take this land from Mr. Souter we can begin our hotel development.”

Craig calls this “almost funny” presumably because it’s a funny conclusion of a not-so-funny judicial decision. Perhaps he can take comfort in the fact that Clements is teaching Souter a fundamental principle of Lockean liberalism: that legislators must live under the laws they create.