The Washington Times also reports today on both state and federal legislative actions in response to the Kelo decision:
“It’s a powerful political issue based on reaction I’ve seen and what our members are hearing,” said Duane Parde, executive director of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which represents 2,400 state legislators.
“The problem is only about five states are in session right now. When the decision came out, the majority of states had already ended their sessions,” he said.
Several states — including Delaware, Georgia, Minnesota, New Jersey and Texas — have legislative eminent-domain bills pending that are aimed at transfers of property to private commercial interests. Several are expected to act this year.
One of the first could be Alabama, where Republican Gov. Bob Riley plans to introduce a bill in a mid-July special session of the Legislature. Legislators in two other states, Illinois and Pennsylvania, also plan to introduce bills this month, said ALEC officials who have been monitoring the issue in the states.
In Massachusetts, House Minority Leader Brad Jones has filed a nonbinding resolution denouncing the court’s decision that has broad bipartisan support in the heavily Democratic chamber. The Republican said he expects it to “sail through the House,” possibly this week.
North Carolina is one of those few states with its legislature still in session. But of course our lawmakers can’t be bothered with protecting private property rights, because they have much more important issues to tend to (scroll to last item).
