Monday, September 05, 2005

Is this the next Kelo case?

Ed Meese writing in The Wall Street Journal, claims Stearns Co. v. U.S could be the next Kelo:
In this anticipated case--Stearns Co. v. U.S.--the lower courts have overturned centuries of precedent, demonstrating that, when it comes to protecting private property, in Ronald Reagan's favorite maxim, government isn't the answer; it's the problem.

Stearns concerns one of the most ancient principles in property law, that ownership includes an absolute right of access (what the law calls an "easement") and lawful use. In 1937, a Kentucky family--owners of the Stearns Co.--sold a tract of land, now part of the Daniel Boone National Forest, to the federal government. They kept the right, subject to environmental restraints, to mine the coal underneath, and the easement.

In the late 1970s, Congress banned any mining in national forests, with two exceptions: where property rights already existed and, if they did not exist, where the secretary of the interior said mines could operate anyway. When regulations were issued, technicalities excluded Stearns from claiming "valid existing [property] rights." The bureaucrats told the company to ask for permission. To protect its property rights, the company sued.
We'll have to wait and see on this one.