Were congress to step in now and guaranty home owners an initial payment twice the market price, and then added compenstation equal to the post develpoment value of the land at a later date when the project is completed, then the developers would think twice about this scamming.

But I would prefer property rights be restored instead.  The new bankruptcy laws hurt families too.

That's the "family values" administration for you.

Maybe Sandra O'Conner will quit to expose the corruption on the supreme court.  The first supreme to turn whistleblower?

Money rules this country, not people. CNN ran a "quick vote" on this ruling- when I checked it, 2/3 said government should NEVER take your land, 1/3 said only for public good, and a grand total of 1% said it's OK to take it for private development.

If this is how far out of touch the Supreme Court is now, just wait till Bush gets his pick of replacements.

a liberal in redsville

Native indigenous cultures do not recognize land ownership, and I agree with them.  The idea of people owning land, and therefore, the Earth, is very anti-environmental and evinces a great lack of respect for the Earth and nature in general.  As a Native American once told me, if anything, the land owns you.

So, what we're really talking about is that people who are using the land to live on may now be thrown off their land in order for some rich people to make even more money by destroying the land even more.  I fully support the government taking inholdings in places like our National Forests or National Parks in order to create more wilderness, but this is the opposite.