Protecting Property Rights for All Americans
“Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) prepared the following statement for today’s House Judiciary Committee markup on H.R. 1944, the Private Property Rights Protection Act of 2013:
I thank the Chairman for putting H.R. 1944, the Private Property Rights Protection Act of 2013, on today’s calendar. This legislation has been around for a number of years, and I am pleased that has enjoyed support from both sides of the aisle.
This legislation was originally drafted in response to the Supreme Court’s decision in Kelo vs. City of New London. In this 2005 decision, the court held 5-4 that “economic development” can be a “public use” under the Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause, justifying the government’s taking of private property. This ruling justified the government’s taking of private property from one small homeowner and giving it to a private business for use in the interest of creating a more lucrative tax base.
Kelo grants the government significant power with virtually zero accountability to the “public use” requirement in the Fifth Amendment’s Taking Clause. The implications of this decision transformed the original purpose of the “public use” limitation. Kelo permits the government to force individuals to forfeit their private property to a large corporation. “
Sensenbrenner website, 12 June 2013.