I hope you all enjoyed the lesson on eminent domain. I think you all learned quite a bit, and hopefully you've already gone home and shared with your families what you've learned about this important issue. I hope that understand that anyone can be affected by this government "tool." Now I want you to sound off – I want to know what you think. Here's a little something to get you started:
"This is America. This is a country with free enterprise. You have all the rights to own your property, your own home, your own business. You have the right to build your American dream."
"The use of eminent domain is a delicate tool, but it is a tool and it helps keep a community clean; it helps keep a community vibrant. It's a good tool and, definitely, I don't think it should be taken away."
These are quotes by two of the people interviewed in the film Unintended Consequences: Eminent Domain. Use them to get your thoughts rolling. Does eminent domain have a role to play in our communities? What should government do to protect private property rights? What can we do as citizens to ensure that these rights are protected? I don't expect you to answer the questions directly (but you may as part of your thought process). These questions are intended to help you think about the issue.
This will be an open forum, which means your comments should post immediately. Do not copy the thoughts of those that post before you, but you can certainly work off of them. That means that you can comment on a comment – you can disagree, agree, or just comment on the thoughts of someone else – but give me your ideas.
Here are few links:
An interesting story from CBS News
http://www.reason.org/eminentdomain/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eminent_domain
Your comments must be posted by the end of Saturday, November 19.
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31 comments:
I think Eminent Domain is a very bad idea. People should have the right to say in their home, not move because someone wants to build a new shopping mall. I think citizens should encouage more laws to protect us from Eminent Domain. Eminent Domain has changed over the years and is not what it used to be. It should be about building schools, libraries etc. not about widening roads and selling private property to other private owners.
I belive that Eminent Domain is a bad idea htat arose in the 5th Amendment. I think that people should be able to actually own the property and not be forced to give it up to the government for Public us. I think if they want to build A school or a library they should find some empty lot or property that is not owned by anyone. I also belive that if they want to widen roads then they should not put a widened road where the house is right next to the street but instead widen a road where the property is large and the land owner will still have some property left for their family. Therefor, i belive that eminent domain is a bad idea. I think that the state should make laws that keep citizens or other people to protect them from eminent domain.
Eminent domain needs to be stopped. Under the Bill of Rights and State and Federal Constitutions, the government has the right to use eminent domain to acquire land for a public use (i.e. roads, schools, hospitals, parks, and police stations). Modern Redevelopment has changed this, and many governments now consider the taking of private property for projects such as shopping centers, auto malls, movie theaters, hotels and houses. The government needs to go back to only use eminent domain for public use. The states and the people need to fight to go back to normal eminent domain. If this happens America will (visually) look nicer and not jam packed like Japan or China. I agree with Rachel and Danielle!
Also Eminent Domain should be strictly controlled by the government.
I have a varying opinion on the different aspects of eminent domain. I think that the government needs to have property to use for public places. I am very sorry for all the people who poured their heart and soul into their home and property, but the state has to have places to build things for public use. Would you rather have your house then a hospital that would probably save many lives. This is a matter of the right thing to do, and not being selfish. There are things about eminent domain that I highly disapprove of however. I think that the state does need to have money, and that the welfare of the citzenry, and the state as a whole relies on the money that the local government has. But I think that the money of the local government should not come before the property of the people. The founding fathers emphasized on the fact that the right to own property is an unaleinable right that should always be respected. The government is taking people's property, and selling it to other private owners, whose business will generate an economic stimilus in the form of taxes. This issue flies in the face of how America is supposed to be run. The U.S. is supposed to put the rights and general welfare of the citizenry above all other things in the U.S. Money does not come before the people. This is not Russia. The U.S. government should not be based on the ideas of radical conservative republicanism. The people are the number one thing in the U.S., and are irreplaceable. Lastly, the state of New London, Connecticut conviced the Supreme Court that the revenue that would be raised from these private owners would serve as a public service. It is not a public service. It is just the state earning money. THey may use that money to make something that would count as a public service, but they do not do that all the time. Plus,even if they created a place for public service, the people's property would have still been taken away for the wrong reasons, and the people's rights would still have been violated.
Also the government would be in the wrong by selling the property to the private owners for what it is worth, but paying the original owners less than what it actually is worth. That is wrong. The whole concept of the abuse of eminent domain is a perfect example of tyranny, due to the government not respecting the people's rights.
I strongly agree with everone who has commented so far.
In my opinion eminent domain has gotten too far out of hand since people at the white house used eminent domain to get rid of what they thought was a "bad" neiborhood, and sell it to another owner. Because of this i now think that the government needs to regulate it to Certain points.
For EX....
It must be for EMERGENCY use of the public only. (not to raise money, or to sell to a "better" owner)
Should be used for
roads, schools and libraries etc...
You must have a good reason to use eminent domain and it must be approved by the supreme court.
If you are approved by the supreme court, then if you are takeing someones house or land you must give them a choice of money of you must find them a new home or land of their choice that is in the same price range.
Adding on to the last paragraph of my other comment.
When i say the person must find them a new house of land i mean they must buy it for them and pay off all insurance problems that have to do with the eminent domain job.
I also agree Thoroughly with caseys opinion.
:) good job!
I believe and understand that eminent domain like it says in the 5th Amendment, that it is used for PUBLIC USE. No "raising taxes" or anything like that. The government need to find a better way to get money and doing it through eminent domain is just a lousy and lazy way of getting money. When I was trying to explain to my momma why Washington DC built new house and replace the old run down ones through eminent domain she got really mad and totally disagreed. I think that if we really try hard enough we cool sign a petition or something like that to let the government (as Mr.Veliz would say) DEAD wrong.
WOAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
CONGRATS CASEY I THINK U BROKE THE GENIS BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS WITH THAT COMMENT :):):):)
K, right now i'm loving everyone's posts '.'... I believe Eminent Domain is not considered neccesary to our normal lives right now. It's because most american's or inhabitants( Can't find another word :O) are under debt and can't afford to pay for there homes. Since the point of Eminent Domain is that they are taking peoples houses and making new buildings. So since the Government is taking Eminant Domain to far, civilians are loosing there homes and there is more homeless people everyday. And with Eminant domain if they take someones business then how would they pay for there expenses. More too come.....
I agree with Danielle. Eminent domain is a horrible idea But i get wherethe goverenment is comig from it saying that it keeps a city clean. Altogether eminent domain to me is a cruel and wrong tool that the govenment is using even if its a shack they are tearing down its still a home.
I think Eminent Domain is a good idea and sometimes a bad idea. It could help the society and make it a better place. But, it could drive people out of their homes, in some cases people have lived at their homes for years born and raised there. Eminent Domain should be used for public use, and people should get just compensation. But, they dont get that in some cases. Which is very wrong. They should at least put it to good use. Building schools and widening roads. It has changed and had gotten worse. But, most of the time its for public use, which is good. I aggre with most of the students opinions.
To Natalie, thank for the good job, and I agree with your state 101%. I completely agree with Natalie's point that it should be approved by the Supreme Court. Let the people decide if they want their house taken away. I also completely agree with what Demi said. The government needs to listen to what the people have to say about eminent domain. I also agree that just getting taxes from private owners, and not trying to increase tax revenue is lazy, and very tyrannical.
I believe that eminent domain is something that should be stopped. Especially if it can take away the homes of others if they don't want to sell. Some good things about it would be just compensation. That is a fair thing about eminent domain, if they give you enough money that your property is worth. As well as using the property for public use. I think they should only do this if the property is abandoned because if they take away people's homes that is unfair.
Eminent domain is a very debatable subject. In my opinion, I think it is a good idea. I know it's their fault, but look at our government and the debt we're in. When you are living in a shack and is bringing almost nothing from your job, you're not helping a all . I under stand what Danielle and Rachel D, but I just don't agree. First of all, a highway is a public use. No offense, but I think your off the mark Rachel D. I could understand you saying you don't agree selling it to other private owners, but I think it's great that we use eminent domain for public use. By the way, go around every school zone and try to find a empty lot big enough to build a middle school big enough to fit around 800 kids.
Maria is Stephen. My mom logged on to her email with my computer haha. sorry
also i totally agree with Natalie!!!
Personally I think eminent domain is a bad idea. If we have the right to not let anyone enter our house without our approval then why in the world can the government tear down your house if they want to? To me that seems crazy. For example, my street used to be one long street but now it has a north and south because they built I10 right in the middle of it. All of those houses were probably taken through eminent domain. Think about yourself and family. it would be terrible if you had to get your house ripped down because the government had to build a road or create a building of some sort. i would understand how eminent domain would be necessary if every other piece of land was developed but guess what, it's not. So why can't the government build schools, libraries etc. on those empty pieces of land? just like we learned in preschool we should treat others how we would want to be treated. so if you didn't want your house torn down then don't tear other peoples houses down.
I think everyone has the same things basically. I think was casey said is very true, that the abuse of eminent domain is an example of tyranny.
I just went back and read everyones comments and even though i think eminent domain is a bad idea i see Stephen's point for how hard it would be to find empty lot in school zone big enough to build a school, and in that case i believe eminent domain would be useful. Although i think that they should give the owner of the house that they are about to tear down the exact amount of money that it would be worth on the market today. Casey also makes some very good points.
I don't agree with eminent domain since people put alot of hard work in improving their homes and they start to get attached to their homes too, and just think, if you spent loads of money on making your home improved just for the goverment to take it away. Although it is for a good cause, being that it is for public use I still feel eminent domain is not good even if you do get paid for what the government says its worth.
I would just like to say thanks to Sophie for being open minded. I know I'm the odd one out, so it's pretty cool when someone agrees with me. :)
I also would like to comment on what Casey said. I understand your point but first of all, you have to also consider that the Founding Fathers said people had the right to keep their property WHEN eminent domain is not in action. Also, I wouldn't go to the level of tyranny. If the government was using tyranny, they wouldn't even care about the public probably.
i agree with both of Sophie's comments.
:)
i also agree with Demi's comment about signing a petition.
Well Mr.Veliz if I think Casey is stating this as Tyranny because of how people are useing tyranny in modernday's and how king's and queen's do things in the mideval times. Since the King's take away peoples land to construct something with out intensional use they take someone's home . and for today even though they don;t take it from will they take the build spot which was used for a public use place and turned it into a private place. So its actually turning soething to your private property.
I think Eminent Domain is, don't get me wrong, a very good idea. Even though people lose homes, money, and vital things in life, this is what i'm thinking. the government tries very hard to keep our precious community clean, i think we're all pretty clear with that, that's why they have Eminent Domain. I was thinking that the government could come up with an idea to find a way to still achieve their goals of what Eminent Domain does, but with a less probability of someone becoming unfortunate and losing something dear to them. government should make a strict rule as to where people build homes and restaurants, or something like that, where they think future resources might be used. if times come and an area is open to build something for public use, no homes are lost and there's no crying or misfortune. if it happens that someone got unlucky and an area had to be opened for public use only like 5 out of the 30 people would have this misfortune. this would prevent less controversy and help us gain an organized and clean community for all.
I strongly agree with everyone. I believe eminent domain is a horrible idea. People should Be able to stay in their homes that they put hard work to build and buy. In addition to that, eminent domain is not even fair when it comes to repaying the people after taking and destroying their homes. So I think eminent domain should be stopped immediately!!
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