A Supreme Court decision that concessions of this sort were unconstitutional would have taken them off the table and actually increased the effective sovereignty of elected officials.
More Quotes from Michael Kinsley:
The case decided on Thursday, though, seemed promising to takings fans because it wasn't about compensation. It was about the requirement that any government taking must have a "public purpose."Michael Kinsley
A gaffe is when a politician tells the truth.
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A couple of weeks ago, the court ruled that states cannot exempt themselves from federal laws against the medical use of marijuana.
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It wouldn't be fair to say that conservatives cherish property the way liberals cherish equality. But it would be fair to say that the takings clause is the conservatives' recipe for judicial activism just as they say liberals have misused the equal protection clause.
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One answer is that the town's elected officials thought that the project served a public purpose and that the various subsidies and favors were worth the price. But they may or may not have thought this.
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That seemed like an insult, ... I guess it was. Even after that, I thought he maybe put it badly and he didn't mean to be sending out these go-away vibes. But it turns out he put it exactly right.
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Based on Keywords: concessions, unconstitutionalToo many people, because they were white and poor, black and rich, or just plain busy with something other than politics, have felt they had no voice in our government.
Mark Sanford
The deadliest foe to virtue would be complete self-knowledge.
F. H. Bradley
Paradoxical as it may seem, to believe in youth is to look backward; to look forward we must believe in age.
Dorothy L. Sayers