Late yesterday, timed to coincide with the first anniversary of the Kelo decision, President Bush issued an Executive Order suppoosedly intended to protect private property rights. At The Volokh Conspiracy, Ilya Somin isn’t very impressed:
Read carefully, the order does not in fact bar condemnations that transfer property to other private parties for economic development. Instead, it permits them to continue so long as they are “for the purpose of benefiting the general public and not merely for the purpose of advancing the economic interest of private parties to be given ownership or use of the property taken.”
Unfortunately, this language validates virtually any economic development condemnation that the feds might want to pursue. Officials can (and do) always claim that the goal of a taking is to benefit “the general public” and not “merely” the new owners. This is not a new pattern, but one that bedeviled takings litigation long before Kelo.
Tim Sandefur is similarly unimpressed:
Since virtually all economic development condemnations are done by state governments, and the Kelo case involved a condemnation by state and local officials, it?s highly doubtful that this executive order will mean anything.
Nice try, Mr. President, but you really haven’t helped the situation.
More at Wizbang and Daniel Drezner
June 24th, 2006 at 2:27 pm
Meaningless
So the Executive Order isn’t worth the paper its written on. Bush is playing politics. Try again Mr. President.
July 25th, 2006 at 10:03 pm
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