Below The Beltway

On June 23rd, we’ll be marking the third anniversary of one of the most infamous Supreme Court decisions of the past decade — in Kelo v. City of New London, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the City of New London, Connecticut, and, by extension, any city in America, was within it’s [...]

The latest installment of The Drew Carey Project is up at Reason.tv and the topic this time is eminent domain:

Further information on the National City case can be found at the Institute for Justice’s website.

Take, for example, the story of the 9 year old girl who sent a letter to Apple only to get a cease-and-desist letter in return:
CBS 13) Like any nine-year-old, Shea O’Gorman spends a lot of time listening to her iPod Nano. So much so, that when her third grade class started learning about writing letters [...]

Apparently, the town of Leesburg is considering banning businesses with drive-thru windows:
Two Leesburg Town Council members have proposed a ban on drive-through service windows in a commercial zone between downtown Leesburg and the Route 7 Bypass, saying they want to make the area more attractive and pedestrian-friendly.
But critics say it is unfair to target banks [...]

Today’s Washington Post reports on another example of eminent domain abuse by local government, this time in Prince William County, Virginia:
The white lines that mark the parking spots around Dharmesh Desai’s auto repair shop are freshly painted, awaiting customers who will never come.
For the past 11 years, Desai has worked to meet the county’s requirements [...]

It seems the District of Columbia is on the verge of taking over a locksmith shop to make way for a massive new hotel:
District officials are proceeding with their plan to acquire a locksmith shop at the corner of Ninth and L streets NW to make way for a convention center hotel, according to D.C. [...]

Unhappy with legislative failure in Richmond, the leaders of the City of Alexandria, Virginia have turned to a new, rather unique, tool in their effort to force local businesses to ban smoking:
Frustrated that the state legislature failed to ban smoking in bars and restaurants, Alexandria officials have come up with a maverick plan of their [...]

While all of the attention during the final hours of the Virginia General Assembly session was focused on the transportation bill, the Senate and House of Delegates passed a bill aimed at restricting local government’s authorty to use the power of eminent domain:
RICHMOND — After more than a year of work on the issue, the [...]

In the second part of an editorial series, the Virginian-Pilot takes a look at the state of property rights in Virginia and finds that things are far from encouraging in the land that was once the birthplace of liberty:
For example, Virginia is one of only sixteen states that have not passed a law to prohibit [...]

In the first of a two-part series on the state of property rights in the Old Dominion, the Virginian-Pilot demonstrates that the idea of “just compensation” for takings is largely an illusion:
When the state takes somebody’s property, Virginia’s Constitution entitles them to “just compensation.” But Meeks discovered that her rights to that just compensation were [...]