Kelo Revisited; At Least On The Federal Level

My good friend Robert Bidinotto who writes the extremely readable Bidinotto Blog has alerted us to a new Executive Order overturning, at least at the Federal Level, Federal taking of property for commercial uses. As Robert noted: "Just when I give up and start ranting against George W. Bush for all his betrayals of limited-government principles, he redeems himself with something like this:"

Way to go President Bush, and way to go Robert for finding this.

UPDATE: Ilya Somin at the Volokh Conspiracy has some thoughts that this might not be what it appears to be:

Read carefully, the order does not in fact bar condemnations that transfer property to other private parties for economic development. Instead, it permits them to continue so long as they are "for the purpose of benefiting the general public and not merely for the purpose of advancing the economic interest of private parties to be given ownership or use of the property taken."

Unfortunately, this language validates virtually any economic development condemnation that the feds might want to pursue. Officials can (and do) always claim that the goal of a taking is to benefit "the general public" and not "merely" the new owners. This is not a new pattern, but one that bedeviled takings litigation long before Kelo. Indeed, the New London authorities made such claims in Kelo itself and they were accepted by all nine Supreme Court justices, including the four dissenters, as well as by the Connecticut Supreme Court (including its three dissenters)."