Big Day at the Supreme Court

Turns out we have a Fifth Amendment, and private property rights, after all.

by Rod D. Martin
June 25, 2013

As if the striking down of pre-clearance wasn't enough, the Supremes today struck an enormous blow for the Fifth Amendment and for private property rights.  For years various levels of government in the allegedly free country we inhabit have been depriving landowners of the use of their property without compensation.

The usual way this works (and, in point of fact, the situation in the case the Supremes decided) is as such:  EPA or similar environmental bureaucrat decides your slightly damp property -- sometimes literally from temporary runoff following a storm! -- is a "wetland" and subject to protection. The government then restricts the landowner from doing anything with his own land, but requires him to keep it up, make any improvements on it the bureaucracy dictates, and of course pay taxes on it.  He just can't use it for himself.  Ever.

The Fifth Amendment says government can't take your property without due process of law and just compensation, but t…