Fascism on the Potomac

This is not a rant against the Bush administration. Nor is it against the military-industrial complex or the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy [I'd support such a project if it existed...]

No, this rant is directed at the 5-judge majority of the US Supreme Court, which today declared private property rights null and void and introduced Fascism as the official economic doctrine of the United States.

The case in question is formally known as "Kelo et al v. City of New London" but could really be called "Innocent Homeowners v. Thieving Politicians and Big Business". The story is this: Local authorities in the Connecticut town of New London (more aptly named Neue Berlin after today) have decided to raze a working class neighborhood to build a Pfizer research facility. 115 privately owned properties will be erased because the new facility is deemed by the city council to be of greater economic value than the current homes.

The 5th amendment to the Constitution states: "...nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation." Today, the US Supreme Court has said that "public use" is whatever the politicians think may be good for some undefined greater good, including a private company building on land they weren't able to purchase through normal means. So from now on, should for example McDonald's wish to build a restaurant where your privately owned house just happens to be situated, you're out on your ear if a simple majority on your city council agrees. Private corporations now have carte blanche to take possession of other people's homes and land by buying politicians, instead of going through the trouble of buying the actual property at the price requested by said property's legitimate owner.

The political notion that everything should be owned by the government is called communism. This notion has been soundly and blissfully rejected in America. The idea that private businesses and government should co-ordinate their activities above the head of individual citizens, who are then obliged to give up their individual rights for some case-to-case defined "greater good" is called Fascism. This idea is what the Supreme Court today declared to be the law of the land.

It should come as a strong warning signal that the five justices who voted in favor of this abominable interpretation of the Constitution are also arguably the five most left-leaning judges on the court: Breyer, Ginsburg, Kennedy, Souter and Stevens. That the left has scarce regard for private property rights when it comes to grabbing it for real public use is a well known and tragic fact. But that they are willing to grab the private property of ordinary working class Americans to benefit a multi-billion dollar company shows that these judges do not adhere to a traditional European "socialist" or American "liberal" ideology, but to something maybe even more sinister.

This latest example of judicial overreach makes the current discussion about confirming federal judges all the more important. Sensible people all across the political spectrum should stop quarreling about procedural details and focus on finding judges that are willing to put individual rights above corporate (and indeed governmental) expediency. It should not be difficult to find well qualified judges both on the "left" and the "right" to replace the Fascist Five, who should be impeached ASAP.