Eminent Domain Casts its Long Shadow Over the Texas Legislature

[ashling]

http://stateimpact.npr.org/texas/2012/09/28/eminent-domain-casts-its-long-shadow-over-the-texas-legislature/

Today in a Beaumont courthouse, Jefferson County Judge Tom Rugg will hear yet another case concerning the Keystone XL pipeline. As we’ve reported, the Canadian company TransCanada has visited a few Texas courthouses lately. Always at issue is whether it can take private property in Texas to build the Keystone XL pipeline.

And Judge Rugg expects we’ll see more pipeline companies visiting more Texas courthouses in the future.

By all estimations, the Denbury Green ruling on eminent domain by the Texas Supreme Court means nobody is quite sure where private property rights end, and a company’s right to take property begins.

“It’s opened up a real can of worms and I’m not sure how it’s gonna get resolved,” Judge Rugg tells StateImpact Texas.

[TexasTowelie]

1. The only thing missing from this picture of the Capitol

is the "For Sale" sign. The lobbyists are blessed with a Christmas gift as both sides will pour money into this battle.

[friendly_iconoclast]

2. Thank John Paul Stevens, Anthony Kennedy, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelo_v._City_of_New_London

[PATRICK]

3. Run a photoshopped pipeline

right through the heart of that building