The House
voted overwhelmingly (376-38) today to withhold federal money from states and municipalities that use eminent domain for commercial purposes, as permitted by the controversial
Kelo v. New London Supreme Court case. Some states had previously started working on state laws to curtail eminent domain to only public-use purposes, but this would effectively do so nationwide.
Not too sure what I think of this. I dislike
Kelo, but I also dislike the federal government using the threat of withholding funding as a way to regulate things the Constitution otherwise wouldn't permit it to regulate (e.g. making Louisiana raise its drinking age from 18 to 21 by threatening to withhold highway funding). I would probably prefer this done the old-fashioned straight-and-narrow way on a state-by-state basis. But, I'm not going to cry too many tears over
Kelo's demise, either, although
perhaps Armando will.