LaNdReW
January 22nd, 2006, 01:20 PM
We need more of this type of thing!!
http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20060122/1009742.asp
Protest targets Souter
By KATHY MCCORMACK
Associated Press
1/22/2006
CONCORD, N.H. - Angered by a Supreme Court ruling that gave local governments more power to seize people's homes for economic development, a group of activists is trying to get one of the court's justices evicted from his own home.
The group, led by a California man, wants Justice David Souter's house seized to build an inn called the "Lost Liberty Hotel."
They submitted enough petition signatures - only 25 were needed - to put the matter before voters in March. This weekend, they are descending on Weare, Souter's hometown, to rally support in the community of 8,500.
"This is in the tradition of the Boston Tea Party and the Pine Tree Riot," organizer Logan Darrow Clements said, referring to the riot during the winter of 1771-1772, when colonists in Weare beat officials appointed by King George III, who had fined them for logging white pines without approval.
"All we're trying to do is put an end to eminent domain abuse," Clements said, by having those who advocate or facilitate it "live under it, so they understand why it needs to end."
If protesters show up, they will be told to stay across from a dirt road that leads to Souter's farmhouse, said Bill Quigley, Weare deputy police chief. Whether Souter will be home in the 200-year-structure was not known.
"They're obviously not going to be allowed on Justice Souter's property," he said. "There's no reason for anybody to go down that road unless they live on that road, and we know the residents that live there. The last time [Clements] showed up, they had a total of about three or four people who showed up to listen to him."
Clements, of Los Angeles, said he never has tried to contact Souter, who voted with the majority in the eminent domain decision.
"The justice doesn't have any comment about it," Kathy Arberg, a Supreme Court spokeswoman, said about the protesters' cause.
The petition asks whether the town should take Souter's land for development as an inn; whether to set up a trust fund to accept donations for legal expenses; and whether to set up a second trust fund to accept donations to compensate Souter for taking his land.
The matter will go to voters March 14.
About 25 volunteers gathered Saturday at Weare Town Hall before setting out in teams to go door-to-door. Clements gathered nine signatures in less than an hour, with only one resident declining to sign.
http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20060122/1009742.asp
Protest targets Souter
By KATHY MCCORMACK
Associated Press
1/22/2006
CONCORD, N.H. - Angered by a Supreme Court ruling that gave local governments more power to seize people's homes for economic development, a group of activists is trying to get one of the court's justices evicted from his own home.
The group, led by a California man, wants Justice David Souter's house seized to build an inn called the "Lost Liberty Hotel."
They submitted enough petition signatures - only 25 were needed - to put the matter before voters in March. This weekend, they are descending on Weare, Souter's hometown, to rally support in the community of 8,500.
"This is in the tradition of the Boston Tea Party and the Pine Tree Riot," organizer Logan Darrow Clements said, referring to the riot during the winter of 1771-1772, when colonists in Weare beat officials appointed by King George III, who had fined them for logging white pines without approval.
"All we're trying to do is put an end to eminent domain abuse," Clements said, by having those who advocate or facilitate it "live under it, so they understand why it needs to end."
If protesters show up, they will be told to stay across from a dirt road that leads to Souter's farmhouse, said Bill Quigley, Weare deputy police chief. Whether Souter will be home in the 200-year-structure was not known.
"They're obviously not going to be allowed on Justice Souter's property," he said. "There's no reason for anybody to go down that road unless they live on that road, and we know the residents that live there. The last time [Clements] showed up, they had a total of about three or four people who showed up to listen to him."
Clements, of Los Angeles, said he never has tried to contact Souter, who voted with the majority in the eminent domain decision.
"The justice doesn't have any comment about it," Kathy Arberg, a Supreme Court spokeswoman, said about the protesters' cause.
The petition asks whether the town should take Souter's land for development as an inn; whether to set up a trust fund to accept donations for legal expenses; and whether to set up a second trust fund to accept donations to compensate Souter for taking his land.
The matter will go to voters March 14.
About 25 volunteers gathered Saturday at Weare Town Hall before setting out in teams to go door-to-door. Clements gathered nine signatures in less than an hour, with only one resident declining to sign.