Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Property Rights and Election Year Politics by Karen Budd-Falen A Memorandum from 2012


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).