Eminent domain offers state judges a tough challenge
STARKVILLE — The one issue in which Republican Gov. Haley Barbour in great measure knocked heads with his political base in Mississippi is the contentious issue of eminent domain – the legal process by which the government can take private property when it is deemed to be in the public’s interest.
The national debate over eminent domain reached fever pitch in 2009 as backlash against a U.S. Supreme Court ruling expanding government authority to take private land. Since the high court ruled 5-4 in 2005 in Kelo vs. City of New London, Conn., that the city had authority to take homes for a private development project, 43 states have enacted laws aimed at neutering or weakening eminent domain laws.
In a strategy developed and nurtured in the Republican-controlled state Senate, three initiatives will be on the 2011 statewide ballot that should be political catnip to conservative voters – eminent domain, personhood and voter identification. Barbour is a longtime advocate of voter ID and all things pro-life. But Barbour believes the eminent domain reforms proposed by the Legislature and by the voter initiative will be a dangerous and unnecessary obstacle to the state’s ongoing economic development efforts.
Sid Salter
6/7/11
Magnolia Tribune
