About Damn Time!

In a landmark case last year, a Federal Court has finally decided that, when the Government takes your land under the Endangered Species legislation or declares your property a "wetland" and tries to force you accept it in silence (the Army Corps of Engineers has been used a lot for this), the Fifth Amendment powers come into play.

Under this Amendment, it states “nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.” You would have thought this would have applied to these situations all along, but it took a case last December for this "just compensation" to be triggered.

The case was Tulare Lake Basin Water Storage District v. United States if anyone wishes to look it up, but you can find a precis of it on the Pacific Legal Foundation web site here.

I think this is a "good thing".