Republican and Conservative political analysis and commentary

Former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore is perhaps the longest long-shot in the Republican presidential field, but if his push to make restoring Americans' property rights eroded in the Supreme Court's Kelo ruling two years ago causes other candidates to take up that issue, he will have done the American people a huge public service. Gilmore discusses Kelo and the importance of property rights in a column published at Human Events. Here are the first few paragraphs of it, though I urge you to read the whole thing...

Gilmore writes:

Two years ago this week, the United States Supreme Court eroded our Fifth Amendment protections in the Kelo v. City of New London case by decreeing that government could seize your home to hand it over to private developers.

This was judicial activism at its worst. The Supreme Court essentially reworded the Constitution, making property rights conditional: a citizen had a right to his property only so long as he put it to use in a way the government deemed of economic value.

As a lifelong conservative, I was offended by such an egregious judicial overreach. As a candidate for President, I believe it is past time for the federal government to step forward in defense of these cherished liberties in a manner our Founding Fathers would be proud of.

The Founding Fathers recognized that property rights were the foundation of a free society. The Virginia Declaration of Rights included property rights among the “inherent rights” of man. James Madison went so far as to define property as including not only a citizen’s possessions, but his opinions, religion, liberty and safety. It is no surprise, then, that the Founding Fathers enshrined the right to private property in the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. As the Fifth Amendment guarantees, private property should be taken only for a "public use," such as a school or road, not to build a private office building or garage The owner of that property, even when taken for public use, is entitled to just compensation.

With property rights so prominently on the minds of James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and George Mason, perhaps it is only appropriate that a Virginian speak out on this important issue. Therefore, this week I am unveiling a National Property Rights Initiative. If I am elected president, the protection of Americans’ constitutionally guaranteed right to own property without fear of encroachment will be a major priority of my administration.

We will certainly have our work cut out for us. Kelo is only the most famous injustice. Every day, Americans are forced from their homes via eminent domain abuse, whether it be Kelo style takings for private development, or governments using liberal definitions of “blight” to justify seizing property. Regulatory takings, by which government renders private property effectively useless through regulation, are commonplace at the municipal, state and federal levels. Intellectual property – a variation on the same theme – is constantly endangered by piracy.

Thirty-six states have now enacted various eminent domain reforms. However, it should not fall on the states to enforce our federal constitution because the Supreme Court abdicated that responsibility.

A Supreme Court governing by federalist principles would never have issued the ruling it did in the Kelo case - and a federalist administration would never have stoody by without immediately demanding Congress right the wrong that the Supreme Court did.

I doubt I'll be voting for Gilmore - I doubt he'll even be in the race by the time the Feb. 5, 2008, primary rolls around in Tennessee. But I fervently hope whoever wins the GOP nomination will make restoring property rights a central part of their campaign message. It's a winning message that cuts across all partisan and demographic lines.

Here's more on property rights from Gilmore's campaign website.