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November 20, 2006
An American Home Should Be Your Castle
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NY Sun |
As Americans are about to open up their homes to friends and family members for the Thanksgiving celebration, former FCC commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth contemplates the legal, political, economic and emotional significance of the American home:
This Thanksgiving, most Americans will enjoy homes that are secure from the threat of condemnation or forfeiture. But homeowners in Riviera Beach and other communities across America face a tyranny of a local majority: Local government that covets their private property and uses the guise of governmental power to seek to transfer that property to another. Against this local tyranny, property owners have no federal protection. States have the prerogative to pass laws and state constitutional amendments to prohibit private takings, but states also have the prerogative to decline to do so.
This year, we have much for which to be thankful. Perhaps next year, all Americans can also aspire to a home secure from private governmental takings.
Posted by lumi at November 20, 2006 9:13 AM