For most of the past few decades, every right wing pundit, lobby, and politician have been on a trigger-alert at any suggested restriction of the right to Do Whatever You Please with your own property. One might have thought that it was one of the Ten Commandments, but in fact the text of my version doesn't say anything about private property rights. We've seen this scenario repeat itself over and over, most notably with the infamous
Kelo decision.
Today, however, a significant break has occurred. The right wing American Center for Law and Justice is intervening in a property rights case, arguing for governmental action to prevent a property owner from developing its property even though the proposed use would appear to be consistent with local zoning laws.
The case, of course if the proposal to build the Cordoba Center, a mosque/community center, on Park Place in lower Manhattan. The existing building appears to be an ordinary commercial building of no particular significance yet the ACLJ wants to use the city's draconian Landmarking power to stope the construction:
The ACLJ has presented New York officials with oral and written testimony urging city officials to landmark the site. "The building links two distinct periods in American history," the ACLJ argued. "It reflects the growth and rise of American free enterprise and stands as a symbol of America’s strength and survival in the face of brutal, sadistic terrorism."
Now that it has lost the vote, it plans to go try to have a court tell the property owner what it can and can not do with its property:
Now, that this vote has occurred, we're planning to file an Article 78 petition in state court to challenge the city's actions. We will allege that there's been an abuse of discretion in the Commission's decision.
http://www.aclj.org/...
Granting Landmark status to a building is a very blunt instrument that is needed to preserve the most precious archtectural gems. It should be used with care, especially when to do so has a serious negative impact on the property owner, in particular when that property owner is a struggling nonprofit, as happened in this case when a beautiful church building was given landmark status over the objections of its small, struggling congregation.
To have granted landmark status to the site planned for the Cordoba Center, a site with ordinary commercial property of no particular significance, would have been a massive abuse of government discretion. Conservatives in the US used to oppose such.
But the most scary thing about this is that at least a significant part of the American right is now saying openly that Constitutional protections against governmental abuse should only apply to certain favored groups and not others. There is no telling where this might lead. We must fight this as strongly as is humanly possible. This is no longer about a mosque, it is about the rule of law in America.