Al- Jazeera has a notably clear report and analysis on how oil and gas interests can simply toss you out of your property and move in. It all goes back to — but you’ve guessed this already — a Bush era Supreme Court decision that extends eminent domain way beyond its intended meaning. [icopyright one button toolbar]
For more than a decade, the country around Ronald and Sallie Cox’s home, 25 miles south of Pittsburgh, has been an unchanging landscape of rolling green foothills. Sitting atop a modest promontory, their property is ringed on three sides by a border of woodland, and to the east, the ground slopes down into a neighbor’s horse paddocks.
The Coxes built their home in 2001, and they’ve paid to maintain their enviable slice of exurban Pennsylvania. When Ronald, a financial adviser at Prudential, grew fed up with the way his wraparound backyard deck shifted every time he sat down for an evening drink, he spent around $30,000 to rip it out and replace it. You could probably land a plane on the new one, he jokes.
“This is my house, it’s my safe zone; nobody’s going to bother me,” he says. “It was worth it for the peace of mind.”
But in late 2012, someone bothered the Coxes. A representative of oil and gas transporter Sunoco Logistics Partners — a “landsman” sent by the company to scout and buy access to their property — came to their front door and told them that Sunoco was going to dig a pipeline under their woods. …AlJazeera
Before 2005, state and municipal governments played a role in deciding whether to allow a particular business interest in a particular area the right to throw you out of your home. Now states are strengthening their stands against the misuse of eminent domain.
Unfortunately, they are too late for some folks who have had cause to realize that the greatest threat to our national security comes not from random international terrorists but from the power of our federal government in its corrupt partnership with big corporations.
Take a look at the numbers of lobbyists on Capitol Hill. Look at campaign funds of individual legislators from sea to shining sea. Dig a little deeper into the lives, affinities, and holidays of five white male justices on the Supreme Court.