Virginia Libertarian

Virginia Property Rights
VirginiaPropertyRights.org was founded to provide a means for all Virginians to make their voices heard on this incredibly important issue.

Take a look, sign the petition

When did your VA senator last do something to prevent eminent domain abuse?

Just learned from an article on HoT about a Libertarian VA Senate candidate in the 24th district, Arin Sime.  The race isn’t until 2007, but have a look at his web site and make a contribution to get one of our own into office.

Chicago Orders “Big Box” Stores to Raise Wage
By ERIK ECKHOLM

After months of fevered lobbying and bitter debate, the Chicago City Council passed a groundbreaking ordinance yesterday requiring “big box” stores, like Wal-Mart and Home Depot, to pay a minimum wage of $10 an hour by 2010, along with at least $3 an hour worth of benefits.

The ordinance, imposing the requirement on stores that occupy more than 90,000 square feet and are part of companies grossing more than $1 billion annually, would be the first in the country to single out large retailers for wage rules.

Now, as much as I think this is a stupid idea, this is the level of government at which it belongs. If the people of Chicago want to make it so that everyone has to be paid $10/hour, that is their decision, and they will ultimately suffer or reap the consequences of their actions. Anyone who doesn’t like the policy can leave. This is a right not given to the federal government by the constitution, so is reserved for the states. Now while I believe it is poor economic police for the state to intervene in private transactions, if the people of Chicago wish to drive the large retailers out of their city, it is their decision.

Official Website of the Libertarian National Committee
Snap a picture and get arrested? It just happened to Philadelphia’s Neffy Cruz. According to this report, Cruz was arrested, cuffed and hauled off to jail for the despicable act of snapping a picture of the police with his cell phone camera:

There are also a couple of good comments after the article, I would like to address part of one of them:

The police have enough to worry about when they are making an arrest. (regardless of the views of whether drugs should be legal, they currently aren’t). Obviuosly this person was thought dangerous or possibly armed or that size of force would not have been utilized. Not only are they worrying about thier safety but now they have to worry about some camera happy dolt.

Since when is it the job of the police to protect someone who makes the (possibly) stupid choice to stick their nose into a potentially hazardous situation?  It is their job to enforce the law, not to protect the public from themselves.  Now, enforcing the law should not put innocents in danger, so conducting a SWAT style raid on a public residence should really be out of the question unless you have evacuated the entire neighborhood.  Perhaps making that a requirement would reduce the occurances of said raids.

Ohio Court Rejects Eminent Domain
Ohio Court Rejects Eminent Domain

The Ohio Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Wednesday that economic development isn’t a sufficient reason under the state constitution to justify taking homes, putting a halt to a $125 million project of offices, shops, and restaurants in a Cincinnati suburb that officials said would create jobs and add tax revenue.

The case was the first challenge of property rights laws to reach a state high court since the U.S. Supreme Court last summer allowed municipalities to seize homes for use by a private developer.

“For the individual property owner, the appropriation is not simply the seizure of a house,” Justice Maureen O’Connor wrote in a case that pitted the city of Norwood against two couples trying to save their homes. “It is the taking of a home - the place where ancestors toiled, where families were raised, where memories were made.”

More good news on the private property front.  Ohio has taken a good step in protecting it’s citizes from seizure of their property for handing over to another private party for development.  Hopefully this trend will continue.  I’d like to see another case make it to the SCOTUS and see if the new court will overturn the Kelo vs. New London decision, but I don’t think any state supremes at this point are going to side with the government on anything resembling this.