Eminent Domain back in the news

If you only watch the headlines or the scroll bar on CNN it may be hard to believe, but Congress occasionally still tries to get something done in the midst of all the Bush/GOP scandals. This week, without a tremendous amount of fanfare, the House voted to put "sanctions" in place that would deter states from using eminent domain to take private property for other than public use, such as the Kelo case last summer.

The U.S. House voted 376-38 Thursday to pass a bill that would withhold federal money from state and local governments that use powers of eminent domain to force businesses and homeowners to give up their property for commercial uses.

A similar bill, sponsored by Democrat John Conyers, is making its way through the Senate at this time. There are both R's and D's backing this legislation, so this actually gives me some hope. Apparently the Supremes are going to keep on using a relaxed definition of "public use" in the future, and Congress probably couldn't get a law that directly contradicts that to pass muster in a challenge. So their solution, (and I have to admit it's a clever one) is not to tell states that they can't do it, but to take away their federal funding if they elect to use eminent domain in that fashion. Not much sense in making a few bucks taking somebody's house if you're going to lose billions over several years from the Feds as a result.

We don't often get much reason to praise our congressional critters from either side of the aisle these days, but my hat is off to them this morning. Good job, guys.