Patrick Leahy: “I strongly disagreed with the very conservative, very activist Supreme Court decision on Kelo, but this is not the place…”

“I strongly disagreed with the very conservative, very activist Supreme Court decision on Kelo, but this is not the place to correct that, on a farm bill. If the Senate, or any Senator, wants to introduce legislation to repeal Kelo, then let's take it to the committee of jurisdiction, the Senate Judiciary Committee, and we will hold hearings on it. There have been no hearings. This amendment does nothing to prevent the Government from seizing private property in order to hand it over to private developers. Instead, it allows governments to seize farmland for a prison but not eminent domain for conservation purposes or a parkland. It is opposed by all the leading conservation groups--the Defenders of Wildlife, the National Wildlife Federation, the Wilderness Society, and on and on. Now, my commitment to farming is very strong, but I don't want to say let's grab farmland for a prison because we passed legislation that nobody has reviewed, nobody has done anything on. This is a mistake. It doesn't belong in a farm bill. If the Senate, or any Senator, wants to overturn the Kelo decision, which after all was done by an activist Republican conservative Supreme Court, then we will hold hearings on it.”