Eminent Domain (Screw You, Taxpayer!)

Eminent Domain, or the right of local governments to tinker with people's property, has come under fire lately, as in with affordable housing. Now, on the opposite side (unaffordable housing), it's coming under another legal assault. Eminent domain has been long used by governments to seize property and consolidate, usually for use in development projects (clear the way for condos, mini-malls, and other urban and suburban terrors). It's been argued for a long time that this is allowable under Article 5 of the Constitution so long as the government offers just compensation for the property. In other words, local governments can't abridge anyone's property rights without giving them something in return. This has been a huge issue with regard to affordable housing, zoning, assessment/appraisement, code enforcement, and of course the subject here, economic development.

Picture New London, Conn., complete with a nice lower-middle class neighborhood with stable land values and a view overlooking the Thames. Donald Trump (or maybe one of his failed apprentices) decides it's a good idea to build a bunch of insanely expensive condos and other such fiddle faddle on this neighborhood. He leans on his pal the mayor to begin using eminent domain, and the notion of private property goes out the window completely. The city simply begins seizing and condemning people's homes, offering them the assessed value of their homes (which is often, as 5th and I can both testify from being involved in some of these matters, a complete farce), and assembling them into a huge chunk to later resell to the developer. So the residents of New London sue. While few except the most libertarian of cranks would dispute that cities should have some rights to do this (otherwise roads would never be built and general development would almost prove impossible), it clearly is abused in the name of neverending gentrification and to the devaluation of the concept of property rights at all. I say good for the residents of New London. The question is. . .will DC residents do the same to oppose the inevitable abuses of eminent domain that will have to occur to build the new stadium?