Adam Thierer expresses a few reservations about Kelo, today's Supreme Court decision on property rights, in his WebLog entry Supreme Court Strikes a Major Blow to Property Rights.

As he points out, telecom, IP, and other tech interests need to recognize that the decision:

[C]ould also come back to haunt communications and media companies, and others in the high-tech sector. That's because this Court has just made it infinitely easier for the State to use various "public use" rationales for taking property of any variety. We've spent that last decade fighting about the rights of telecom and cable companies in the battle over forced access, and decisions like Kelo won't make it any easier for those companies to defend the property right they are entitled to in the networks they develop.

Most at risk, in my view, is the pharmaceutical industry, as noted in Chickens, Circling for a Landing. Local governments are flirting with the idea that they should use eminent domain to seize drug patents at the drop of a "health emergency." Looks like public purpose to me, under Kelo.

posted by James DeLong @ 4:37 PM | General

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