I agree with you completely. I was shocked when the Supreme Court rendered their decision. There was a lot of noise about it for a week or so but it has since died down. This happens more than people realize. My brother-in-law is paying 30% to a lawyer so he can get a fair and reasonable amount for his property. The case will probably drag on for years. The city took his land, buildings, and property worth over 175,000.00 on the market (he had just purchased it 2 years earlier and ran the business very succesfully) and paid him 60,000.00 total for it. When he refused to agree to the price they took it and displaced his business in one day.


>Only Patriot Act? What about the recent Supreme Court opinion about giving cities more rights to take your property and land if they think it will benefit the city budget or improve the local economic situation.
>I came from communist country, where such an opinion was the common one. And I believe that here it is much worse than Patriot Act because cities may have other possibilities to improve the local economy, and even Supreme Court is not going to defend individual rights.
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>>Better than any place else is not necessarily sufficient. If the standard was only the best in comparison then it would be a sad day for our country. One of the greatest benefits of living in the U.S. has always been the mentality of the populace and the willingness for change in the area of individual rights and liberties. Many immigrants come here and cannot understand why the average American complains so much about our government leaders and our laws. Many have told me that while it might not be ideal it is better than anyplace else and we should be grateful. Grateful? What they don't realize is that this country continued to improve because the average citizen was never willing to tolerate a loss of personal freedom or rights. That appears to be changing with the Patriot Act.