Legislature Considering Bill to Limit Eminent Domain

The Alabama House has passed a bill that would prohibit municipalities from using their eminent domain powers to take private property for commercial uses. The bill now goes on to the Senate.

What's at stake here is the right of private property owners to be secure against government takings of their property for the sole purpose of selling it to another private owner for non-public uses. Abuse of eminent domain authority by local governments has been on the rise in recent years, and this bill is an effort to restrain the use of this unsavory form of corporate welfare here in Alabama. Libertarians and conservatives alike should stand united in supporting it.

On a related note...there's a case currently being decided by the U.S. Supreme Court deals with eminent domain and the meaning of "public use" under the Fifth Amendment. The case is Kelo v. City of New London (CT).

On a different note...I noticed that the reporter used the contraction that'd in that linked article. Somehow, I don't think that's in the New York Times style manual.