The object lesson to turn Supreme Court Justice David Souter’s home into a hotel through eminent domain failed in the town meeting in  Weare, New Hampshire yesterday, but the point was made. The ill conceived eminent domain battle is just beginning to be waged across the country as homeowners and taxpayers are horrified that their personal property can be taken on the whim of a politician.

Residents on Saturday overturned a proposal to evict U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter from his farmhouse and build an inn, instead substituting a call for the Legislature to strengthen state law on eminent domain.

A group of residents had petitioned to get the matter on the town’s March ballot, asking voters to take the justice’s Weare home by eminent domain for the “Lost Liberty Hotel.” The effort grew out of anger at Souter’s support for last year’s Supreme Court decision that allowed New London, Conn., to take several waterfront homes for a private developer.

Saturday’s meeting gave residents the chance to voice their opinions and amend the proposal, one of about 50 on the ballot.

“This is a game,” said Walter Bohlin, who proposed adding the word “not” throughout the proposal to take Souter’s eight acres, including his more than 200-year-old farmhouse. “It was a piece of property targeted for revenge.” via Rutland Herald

Walter, it was not targeted as revenge, but as a statement against the haughty and unreasonable taking of property by an elite Supreme Court Justice. If the measure had passed, the irony and sense that Supreme Court Justices are bound by the same laws they expect us common folk to abide by, would have been heard by every politician in the country.

And the battle is  not over.

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