I have been swamped this summer but have much to share and will catch up by first sharing an email from Karen Budd-Falen friend and attorney from Wyoming who has been instrumental in disclosing extremist's deception in EAJA. She is forever fighting for our rights and I hang on every word she says because she is walking the walk and has been victorious in her battles.
Memorandum
To: Interested Parties
From: Karen Budd-Falen
Budd-Falen Law Offices, LLC
Date: August 7, 2012
Since election season is in full swing, I wanted to pass along some things to think about.
Feel free to distribute and publish as you see fit.
Property Rights and Election Year Politics
• “No other rights are safe where
property is not safe.” Daniel
Webster (1782 - 1852).
• “Among the natural rights of the
colonists are these: First a right to
life, secondly to liberty, and
thirdly to property; together with
the right to defend them in the
best manner they can.” Samuel
Adams (1722 - 1803).
• “The Right of property is the
guardian of every other Right,
and to deprive the people of this,
is in fact to deprive them of their
Liberty.” American diplomat
Arthur Lee (1740 - 1792).
In this election year, it is critical to ask
what your current elected
representatives – or those who want to
be your elected representatives – believe
when it comes to private property and
private property rights.
Private property is all tangible and
intangible things owned by individuals
or organizations over which their
owners have legal rights, such as land,
buildings, money, copyrights, patents,
etc. Unless the mandates of the Fifth
Amendment are met, private property
can be transferred only with its owner's
agreement. Property can include every
valuable right that can be owned, has an
exchangeable value, or adds to one’s
wealth or estate. Property describes a
person’s exclusive right to possess, use,
and dispose of something. It has been
said that the rights to the ownership and
use of property and property rights is a
basic element of the capitalist system,
and is even the basis for the rights
guaranteed in the First Amendment of
the U.S. Constitution. “In its larger and
juster meaning, [property] embraces
every thing to which a man may attach a
value and have a right; and which leaves
to every one else the like advantage. In
the former sense, a man’s land, or
merchandise, or money is called his
property. In the latter sense, a man has a
property in his opinions and the free
communication of them. He has a
property of peculiar value in his
religious opinions, and in the profession
and practice dictated by them.” James
Madison (1751-1836), author of the First
Amendment to the United States
Constitution.
Under the Fifth Amendment of the U.S.
Constitution, private property cannot be
taken unless it is for a public purpose,
without due process and just
compensation. The Fifth Amendment
was written to protect individuals
against abuse of government authority
by requiring due process (i.e. a legal
procedure). The Fifth Amendment’s
guarantees stem from English common
law which traces back to Magna Carta of
1215. For example, the Fifth
Amendment protects individuals from
criminal double jeopardy and self
incrimination; it also protects property
from being taken unless there is a
“public purpose,” without due process
and just compensation.
Although often overlooked, in this
election year, we the people should focus
our thoughts on the Fifth Amendment’s
requirement that property cannot be
taken unless there is a public purpose.
The courts have allowed legislative
bodies, such as a city council, county
commission or the state legislature to
determine what is in the public purpose.
The determination of a “public purpose”
by your federal, state and local elected
officials extends to determining if
eminent domain will be granted to
companies for rights-of-ways, limiting
land use through restrictive zoning
decisions and taking private properties
“for a higher and better use.”
In this election year, it is up to you to
determine how far your elected officials
go in either eliminating or defending all
forms of private property. As John
Locke (1632 - 1704) stated, “[t]he great
chief end therefore, of Mens uniting into
Commonwealths, and putting
themselves under Government, is the
Preservation of their Property. . . .
Whenever the legislators endeavor to
take away and destroy the property of
the people, or to reduce them to slavery
under arbitrary power, they put
themselves into a state of war with the
people . . . .”
There is nothing your elected officials
have adopted in the past that cannot be
changed by a new elected body with the
will to do so. So I would encourage you
to ask these questions of yourself and
your elected officials:
• How important is the guarantee
of the ownership and use of
private property and property
rights?
• Do you have elected officials who
listen to the citizens, treat them
with respect and represent the
people in the City, County, State
or Country or do they merely
represent the county employees
who want to retain power to
themselves?
As stated by Thomas Jefferson (1743 -
1826), “All tyranny needs to gain a
foothold is for people of good conscience
to remain silent.” And while not
necessarily a Constitutional scholar, a
famous singer/songwriter once stated,
“[g]et up, stand up, stand up for your
rights. Get up, stand up, Don't give up
the fight.” Bob Marley (1945 - 1981).
