Scott Garrett: “this Friday is the 1-year anniversary of the United States Supreme Court's decision of Kelo v. City of New London. And…”

“this Friday is the 1-year anniversary of the United States Supreme Court's decision of Kelo v. City of New London. And this decision has wide-ranging constitutional ramifications, most notably the grasping at rights guaranteed by our guiding document, the Constitution. That is the reason that we dedicate this week's Congressional Constitution Caucus to discuss this case. The fifth amendment clause, the so-called ``taking clause,'' the one cited by the Court here and cited by the city as well to allow them to take homes from various families away from them and give them to other private individuals, that clause, the power of eminent domain, that is not a positive grant of power to the government. Rather, that is an express limitation on the powers of the government. In other words, our Constitution expressly limits the powers the government has to take away your property or mine. James Madison once said: ``As a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have property in his rights.'' Our Founding Fathers understood that private ownership of property is vital. It is vital to our freedom and to our prosperity as well. Yet our own, very own U.S. Supreme Court issued a very narrow 5-4 decision in the Kelo v.…”