Adding Insult to Injury
President Bush celebrated the first anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Kelo decision with an Executive Order, basically restating the Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution. By the President’s order, private property is now protected by:
limiting the taking of private property by the Federal Government to situations in which the taking is for public use, with just compensation, and 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.
It’s absurd that the Fifth Amendment needs repeating, especially to certain Justices whose reading comprehension is diminished in the presence of our founding documents.
We’re still at the mercy of state and local government land grabs, but I guess we’re not supposed to worry about the Federal government, at least until January, 2009, when our next chief executive may have other orders in mind.
Our government was founded on the principle that individual rights are not subject to the whim of any one man or government body. They are not granted to us by government, but inherent in our very existence as sentient beings. We should demand a government that holds our Constitutional rights as inviolable, not feel grateful for whatever meager scraps of rights a government official is willing to indulge.
The President’s Order is an insult. His oath of office would be better served by leading a movement to impeach those Justices who rule in clear violation the US Constitution.