Kelo

Right after the Kelo v City of New London decision came out, I was telling one of my dear liberal friends about how wrong it was for the court to decide that it's OK for a government to seize someone's private property and sell it to a private company.

She hadn't really followed the case so she just assumed that it was the Scalia, Thomas, Rehnquist cabal serving big business interests. When I told her it was the liberals on the court, Kennedy, Stevens, Ginsburg, Breyer et al, she seemed somewhat surprised.

That's the big misconception many rank and file liberals have about liberal ideology in practice. Many liberals think they are champions of the little guy, but it's much deeper than that. Liberal ideology starts with the assumption that the state knows better and as a result should have all the resources to distribute as they see fit and this Kelo case was a perfect example of liberalism in practice.

Andrew Napolitano has a great article titled "Property Rights after the Kelo Decision" which really lays out the assault on private property rights this decision provides the state.

While I was totally outraged by the Kelo case, I really should not have been surprised. Really, why shouldn't the government be able to seize your property for whatever reason it's sees fit? It does that already. We have mandatory income taxes required to be paid... that's a property seizure. A government passes a minimum wage law.... that's a property seizure. A government says you can't develop your property because it's a wetland, that's a property seizure.... it never ends.

As Barry Goldwater once said "a government big enough to give you what you want is big enough to take it all away."