what's ours is ours and what's yours is ours

At least that's the way government sees everything. And now our heroes on SCOTUS have backed them up. Unbelieveable. Now I'm no fan of government and I certainly don't hold high expectations for it, but this even caught me by surprise. This must no doubt be one of the worst SCOTUS decisions in our nation's history.

We can all see the writing on the wall. All governments like tax revenue. Property taxes provide a large chunk of that revenue. Taxes are higher for high-priced, developed lots than for Joe Blow's homestead. So which do you think the local powers that be are going to want to see on that land? An older home or some brand spankin' new development? Hmmn...tough decision there for the money grubbers in the government. All they need to do is figure out how to get Joe out of the way.

Used to be that Joe didn't have to give up his land and be forced to go along with what those around him were doing if he didn't want to. It was his land and he could do with it as he pleased so long as he obeyed the law. Only in very rare circumstances could the government force him to sell, if they needed his land to support public infrastructure. But this has been risky business (money for legal challenges, publicity fallout, etc.) for local officials, and it hasn't been tried often. And trying it for the benefit of private citizens or corporations was never a consideration.

But, surprise! In swoops the Supreme Court to rule that not only can the government lay claim to Joe's property, but now private developers can also go after it. (Okay, local governments can go after it on behalf of private developers, but it's the same thing really--money talks.) So Joe--and the rest of us--can forget about any kind of ownership of property. If we don't use what we have "for the greater good" then someone else who promises they will can take it from us. Does that sound right? Does that sound anything like a practice you'd expect to see in a democratic society?

I can't remember a SCOTUS blunder that scared me as much as this one. They have missed badly on affirmative action cases and some relating to the war on terror, but declaring that I can never really own property? Are we living in a socialist country now or what? Thankfully the fallout from this has been huge, so I'm not the only one who smells something wrong here.

And this happens as I'm in the process of trying to buy my first piece of land...such timing.

UPDATE: One of Vox's commenters says: "Now, you guys know how I felt when Canada passed that 'hate' speech bill regarding homosexuals." Very true. That one caught me off guard but I figured it was just those leftist Canadians at work again trying to catch up with mainland Europe. But this recent crap hits a bit closer to home.

UPDATE 2: Lots and lots and lots of blog coverage. Some of my regular reads are here, here, here, and here (with a link to a nice roundup of blog activity about this mess). Captain Ed reminds us that this judicial activism thing isn't new. And you know there's always a silver lining somewhere in there.