CL Opinion – Eminent domain: Authority crucial

Eminent domain: Authority crucial

Jackson businessman Leland Speed is to be applauded for taking on entrenched interests to fight for an essential tool of economic development – eminent domain.

The legal principle is being treated as a people’s rights cause, a sort of “little guy against the state” issue. But, as Speed points out, the purpose of the legal principle is to serve the public as a whole.

The Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation led the effort to get an initiative placed on the November ballot that would restrict the use of eminent domain, the taking of property by the government for projects benefiting the public good.

Clarion Ledger
6/6/11