The House has passed an amendment prohibiting the use of federal funds to seize private property for private economic development projects. In its report on the bill, the LAT quotes [House minority leader Nancy Pelosi]’s reason for opposing it. She said she doesn’t want to withhold federal dollars “for the enforcement of any decision of the Supreme Court, no matter how opposed I am to that decision.”
This is, of course, a complete non sequitur. The Supreme Court’s Kelo decision in no way said that cities must take private property or that Congress should encourage takings. It said those takings weren’t constitutional prohibited. If anything, the House bill enforces Kelo, which requires legislative, rather than constitutional, protections at the federal level. . . .
Absolutely right. See here for Virginia’s post, which has some more material on this.
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