It is legal in some states for a local government to take away your house in order to sell your property to developers.
Prior to the Kelo case, it was legal in more states than it is today.
Kelo v. City of New London, 545 U.S. 469 (2005), was a case decided by the Supreme Court of the United States involving the use of eminent domain to transfer land from one private owner to another private owner to further economic development. In a 5–4 decision, the Court held that the general benefits a community enjoyed from economic growth qualified private redevelopment plans as a permissible "public use" under the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment.The case arose in the context of condemnation by the city of New London, Connecticut, of privately owned real property, so that it could be used as part of a "comprehensive redevelopment plan." After the Court's decision, the city allowed a private developer to proceed with its plans; however, the developer was unable to obtain financing and abandoned the project, and the contested land remained an undeveloped empty lot in 2019.
In the aftermath of the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision to uphold this atrocity, state legislatures began to pass laws prohibiting this practice.
Prior to the Kelo decision, only seven states specifically prohibited the use of eminent domain for economic development except to eliminate blight. Since the decision, forty-five states have amended their eminent domain laws, although some of these changes are cosmetic
This video offers a good summary of the case. What will astound you is who showed up in Washington to protest the Court's decision in the name of defending private property. It begins at 7:15.
The most egregious example of the power of eminent domain in my youth was the theft of land owned by Hispanics in Los Angeles, beginning in 1951. It was done to build tax-funded housing. The acquisition process was held up by lawsuits. But then Walter O'Malley, who owned the Brooklyn Dodgers, offered the city a deal in 1958. "Let the Dodgers buy the land from the city." And so it was.
Take me out to the ball game
Take me out to the crowd
Buy me some peanuts and stolen land
Then we can cheer the state's visible hand!
We can root, root, root for the home team
If they don't win it's a shame
For it's one, two, three strikes you're out
When it's eminent domain!
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