The Libertarian Party of Tennessee

TNLP Defends Property Rights From Kelo Ruling

Posted 07/22/05

TNLP members work with city and county governments to call upon the State Legislature and the U.S. Congress to prohibit eminent domain takings for non-public use. &nb

Tennessee Libertarians are taking on the U.S. Supreme Court. The Kelo v. New London ruling that emaciated private property rights can only have an effect in states where the state law doesn't prohibit the use of eminent domain to take private property for the use of another private party. So TNLP members want to make sure our state legislature passes a law prohibiting such.

State Senator Mae Beavers (R-17) is working hard to this end, and there is much that can be done to support her efforts. Besides the obvious step of contacting state legislators and demanding that they take help pass such legislation, TNLP members are doing a lot on the local levels to apply more pressure to the state legislature.

Libertarians across the state are calling on their local government officials to pass resolutions condemning the Kelo ruling and calling on the Tennessee Legislature and the U.S. Congress to pass specific laws prohibiting the Kelo situation.

1) On July 18th, the McMinn County Commission passed such a resolution without dissent, with support from members of the TNLP and the Constitution Party. Click here to see a copy of the McMinn County Commission resolution.

2) LPTN member and Wilson County Commissioner Heather Scott has proposed such a resolution. It is currently in the Judicial Committee for review and will be considered at the August commission meeting.

3) An LPTN member made a resolution proposal to the Athens City Council on July 19th, with action deferred until the next meeting.

4) An LPTN member made a resolution proposal to the Cookeville City Council on July 21st, with action deferred until a later meeting, giving the council members and the city attorney time to review it. There was decidedly positive reaction to the proposal by the Mayor.

5) The Hamilton County Libertarian Party issued a press release, calling on their officials to adopt such a resolution, and the release has been picked up by local media.

Stay tuned for changes to this list as we find out about them!

For more sample materials, Click here to see the Reason Public Policy Institute's sample municipal resolutions, sample municipal provision/ordinance language, and sample state legislation language for use in your own battle against the Kelo ruling.

Comments on this article:

(Those who comment speak for themselves, NOT the LPTN!)

07/17/06 - 02:18:18 by rickmullins

I am familiar with many people that are upset about the lack of limits on city governments pertaining to the use/abuse of Eminent Domain since the Kelo ruling, especially in the now booming town of Mt. Juliet. However, despite all of the posturing, little is being done to remedy this on a state and local level. Senator Mae Beavers was mentioned in this article, and even she is doing little to rememdy this problem. She was called, shortly after this article was posted, to be informed of abuse of Eminent Domain within her district to which her answer to the caller was (to paraphrase) "I hate to hear that, but there's nothing I can do." The Mayor of Mt. Juliet reccomended that the Senator be called, yet there was not even an offer made to look into what is going on in Mt. Juliet. Officials that profess to be working toward a solution to such a widespread problem should at least be willing to listen to and look into occurances of said problem instead of brushing off and discounting those that are actually living with the issue.

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