Michael Kinsley Quotes

They can’t take your house and give it to the mayor’s mistress, even if they pay you for it. But they can, apparently, take your house and tear it down to make room for a development of trendy shops and restaurants, a hotel and so on.

The logic is often far-fetched – how does medical marijuana affect interstate commerce? – and some conservatives would like judges to start throwing out federal laws wholesale on commerce clause grounds. The court once again said no thanks.

The case decided on Thursday, though, seemed promising to takings fans because it wasn’t about compensation. It was about the requirement that any government taking must have a “public purpose.”

The “takings” clause of the Fifth Amendment is for conservatives what the equal protection clause of the 14th is for liberals.

So the danger of conservative judicial activism has been averted for another year. Stay tuned.

One answer is that the town’s elected officials thought that the project served a public purpose and that the various subsidies and favors were worth the price. But they may or may not have thought this.