Classifieds

Commentary
These days, poisonous collusion between powerful private sector interests and the state turns one's thoughts to insecure cell phone data and social media censorship in the service of the Democratic Party. But devil's bargains between Chamber of Commerce members and elected officials have been going on for a long time, maybe back to the Pliocene Epoch.
Consider the outrageous 5–4 ruling in Kelo v. City of New London in 2005, which twisted the Fifth Amendment's eminent domain doctrine "in favor of affording legislatures broad latitude in determining what public needs justify the use of the takings power," the upshot being that a Connecticut woman's humble home could be seized not to build, say, a public highway but because a politically well-connected private developer wanted it. Alongside its protection against self-incrimination, the Fifth Amendment enshrined a guarantee in its takings clause that "private property" shall not "be taken for public use, without just compensation"—but "public use" became anything state legislators decided it was....