The silence from the left is both chilling and damn right depressing. Eminent domain abuse is a huge problem, that is, for the most part, ignored by progressives. Why that is, I don't know.
What the Supremes did today was pave the road for Wal-Mart, Home Depot, any big box store you name it, to be able to take your property at their price, like it or not--you no longer have any say. The only thing the corporations or wealthy developer's need is a buyable politician and your screwed. How hard is it these days or any damn day to buy a politician? Do Grandma and Grandpa living in their farmhouse on the outskirts of town stand a chance if Wal-Mart decides to plop down a Super Store there? Fuck no. Grab your ankles Grandpa because Wal-Mart can generate a lot more tax dollars than your quaint little hovel in the sticks. And what does a huge influx of tax dollars do for the politician? More money to spend on pork-barrel projects, which in turn increase's his likely hood of getting reelected.
Some on the left might think that bulldozing down a city block to put up low-income housing and such is a good thing but the pendulum swings the other way all to often. Ask any one from the erstwhile black middle class neighborhood in Atlantic City that lost their homes so the developers could build a tunnel to a new casino.
How about a family forced to sell in Florida so the wealthy can build a golf course?
Or the working class neighborhood in Alabaster Alabama that is losing out to a Wal-Mart? I could spend all night listing all the cases. According to the Institute for Justice--a Washington public interest law firm representing the community in New London Connecticut that just got skull-fucked in this horrible decision--10,000 properties were threatened or condemned in recent years. If you want to see more cases here's a good website:
http://wampum.wabanaki.net/archives/001181.html