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Free Liberal: Coordinating towards higher values

Free Liberal

Coordinating towards higher values

Mississippi: Gov. Barbour Protects Insiders at Your Expense

By Christina Walsh

Do not be misled by Governor Barbour’s call for a special session to address Mississippi’s eminent domain laws. He is not interested in protecting your property. As clearly expressed in his veto message on H.B. 803, Barbour will seize your home, business, church or farm for wealthy developers and large corporations.

H.B. 803, passed with overwhelming bipartisan support earlier this year, would have prohibited the condemnation of private property for private development, but would still allow its use for public projects—things like roads, bridges, airports, and for flood control—and for the removal of properties that pose a direct threat to public health and safety.

Barbour is now pushing his own law that may look, at first glance, like it will protect your property from being seized. But the exception for projects authorized by the Mississippi Major Economic Impact Act will keep everyone on the chopping block.

My organization, the Institute for Justice, represented Susette Kelo and her neighbors before the U.S. Supreme Court in Kelo v. City of New London, hands-down one of the most universally reviled decisions in history. By a narrow 5-4 majority, the court redefined “public use” to mean any private venture that might generate more tax revenue or jobs—indisputably a far cry from what our founding fathers intended.

Kelo shocked the nation. In the wake of this decision, every poll demonstrated overwhelming opposition to eminent domain for private gain. As aptly predicted by both the NAACP in their amicus brief for the homeowners in Kelo and Justice O’Connor in her dissent, and as demonstrated by our study, “Victimizing the Vulnerable: The Demographics of Eminent Domain Abuse,” eminent domain abuse disproportionately affects minorities, the less educated and the less well-off…a pattern that has further fueled the fury against this decision.

Legislatures heeded the public’s dismay, and 43 states passed reform that increases the rights of property owners to keep what is rightfully theirs. In unprecedented displays of bipartisanship, our elected representatives nationwide took a stand for one of our most fundamental rights against their tax-hungry inclinations and land-hungry suitors.

But not in Mississippi—until this year. Finally, four years after Kelo, a strong bill sailed through the House (119-3) and Senate (51-0) and landed on the Governor’s desk. The Institute for Justice joined a diverse coalition including the Farm Bureau, National Federation of Independent Business, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the Mississippi Loggers, Forestry, and Cattlemen’s Associations, urging the Governor to sign this important piece of legislation.

Unfortunately, Governor Barbour sided with rich, out-of-state corporations, declaring that the government should be able to take your property for their projects.

By employing arguments and rhetoric that have been systematically proven wrong through intensive research analysis, real-world experience and common sense, the Governor forced a decision upon the legislature that needn’t be decided: choose economic development or pass this bill, which he claimed would destroy Mississippi as an economic competitor. Barbour was able to convince enough senators of his misleading claims, and his veto was sustained.

Quite contrary to Barbour’s arguments, states can pass reform, protect the rights of their citizens and enjoy uninhibited economic growth, as we demonstrate in our recent study, “Doomsday? No Way: Economic Trends and Post-Kelo Eminent Domain Reform.” 43 states have proven this. Large-scale development occurs every single day without the use of eminent domain. Large corporations like Nissan and Toyota are perfectly capable of purchasing property through private negotiation, as they have done countless times across the country. To claim that Mississippi will no longer be able to compete with other states when it comes to attracting development is misguided at best, and outright misleading at worst.

As every legislator knows, there are myriad incentives like tax-breaks and cost reduction that the government can provide developers. This particular “incentive”—offering to seize the private property of hard-working Mississippians for a developer that is unable or doesn’t feel like negotiating—amounts to nothing more than an underhanded shortcut that abuses the government’s despotic power in a way that threatens to destroy the foundations of this nation.

Eminent domain for private gain is a politically and morally intolerable policy, and Mississippians deserve better. The right to own your property shouldn’t depend on how big of a project a potential developer is proposing for your land. Your home is your castle. We urge the legislature to stand behind the constitutional principles they voted for earlier this year and behind the constituents that voted them into office. The Institute for Justice will continue to work with our allies in the Capitol and at the grassroots to vindicate your right to keep what you have worked so hard to own.

Christina Walsh is the director of activism and coalitions at the Institute for Justice, the nation’s leading legal advocate for property rights.



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