But the dKos community hasn't really been too pissed off about the outrage foisted on us by SCOTUS this past week. I think I have found the reason- the dissenters were Rhenquist, O'Connor, Scalia, and Thomas.
And I'll be blunt- I agree with them. I am siding with Antonin Scalia on this one, against Ruth Bader Ginsburg. This ruling outrages the liberal in me AND the libertarian in me. I'm not hugely enamored with private property rights, and I wouldn't shed too many tears over the compensation of private land for a public school, or water treatment plant, or public hospital, provided the owners were compensated per the 5th amendment. But what the court has basically done here is opened a big freakin' door for cronyism and abuse of power by the authorities- Wal-Mart gets friendly with some local council members, donates to campaigns, et cetera. Wal-Mart pitches a plan to open up a supercenter to restore a "blighted" neighborhood. The councillors remember who their friends are and seize the land via their newly expanded eminent domain privileges. Wal-Mart gets their supercenter which benefits wal-mart way more than the community, and wal-mart gets more profit off the seizure of local homes. I am all about the power of the state, I'm unapologetically liberal. But this is too fuckin' much! The 5th amendment quite clearly states "public use." So now local governments can seize money to give to corporations to further enrich them. How very progressive.
It saddens me that I am forced to side with Scalia. I'm genuinely curious how many liberals are pissed off about this.