The Volokh Conspiracy
Opinion
An important legal victory for property rights in the North Carolina Supreme Court
By Ilya Somin June 12 at 11:35 AM
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The North Carolina Supreme Court recently issued an important unanimous decision blocking what would have been a major uncompensated expropriation of property rights by the state.
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The decision has implications that go beyond the Map Act and the taking of property for road-building. Had the ruling gone the other way, it might well have opened the door to uncompensated takings in various other situations, as well. There are many situations where the state might want to lower the value of property by indefinitely banning development, so it can then take the property at a later date in order to use it for a public project, or even to transfer it to influential private interests under the guise of promoting “economic development” or alleviating blight. Such takings were ruled to be permissible “public uses” by the Supreme Court in the controversial Kelo case in 2005, and are still permitted in all too many states even in the aftermath of the massive political backlash against Kelo.
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Unfortunately, Kelo was a disaster.
We strayed far from the Constitutional meaning of “taking”.
“We, The Sheeple” need to push the politicians and bureaucrats harder for more legal protections. Every “taking” must be vigorously opposed.
Argh!
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