By Steven Greenhut
The Orange County Register
(MCT)
As a rule, the freer the society, the more easily understood and straightforward its laws and constitution. The meaning of the First Amendment is pretty clear to most anyone, but it takes a decoder ring - or the judgment of an elite group of government regulators - to explain whether one is in violation of the USA Patriot Act or the Clean Water Act.
Simplicity is the friend of freedom, obfuscation its foe.
And so the enemies of freedom would have us believe that the Constitution's fairly simple words don't precisely matter - only the penumbras and complicated modern interpretations. Which explains why the high court often makes rulings that seem grievously at odds with the founding text. For instance, in Kelo v. City of New London (Conn.), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that cities can take private property and give it to other private parties even though the Fifth Amendment clearly limits such takings to "public uses."
We've all gotten used to this type of thing. But once in a while, clarity and simplicity win out, and judges actually read the words of our founders and apply them as they were meant to be applied. The ruling came in late July, yet I'm still stunned and slightly giddy over it.
A frequently divided Ohio Supreme Court ruled unaminously against an Ohio city that was trying something similar to the issue at the heart of the Kelo case. The city of Norwood invoked eminent domain to take properties from current owners and give them to a developer in order to promote economic development. The new owners would pay more in taxes and provide more desirable uses than the old owners, according to the city.
Click here for the rest of the article
No comments:
Post a Comment