A fight over a city’s attempt to foil the operations of a family business is headed to the Supreme Court, where the justices are being asked to strike a city’s move to confiscate the family’s land for an unplanned park that won’t have any improvements.
The park, according to the appeal on behalf of Ben and Hank Brinkmann of Southold, New York, is just a ruse to cover the city’s “true purpose” of stopping their business, according to the Institute for Justice, which has taken up the family’s fight.
The ruling from the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the family could not stop city officials from confiscating their land for a “passive park,” which is undeveloped property that city officials apparently intend to leave that way.
“Ben and Hank Brinkmann bought undeveloped property in Southold for a new location of a family hardware store their parents started in the 1970s. But Southold’s inner circle apparently didn’t want the Brinkmanns’ business in town. So they began a campaign to wrap the new hardware store in red tape with dizzying permitting requirements, abrupt regulatory changes, and delays. But Ben and Hank persevered, jumping through every hoop,” the IJ explained.
But, “Unable to thwart the Brinkmanns’ perfectly legal business, the town decided to use eminent domain to seize the property for a so-called ‘passive park,’ meaning a park that won’t be improved. There is no dispute that the park was dreamed up on the fly simply to stop the Brinkmanns. Evidence shows none of the planning normally associated with parks, and the town never mentioned the park to the Brinkmanns while they ran their multiyear permitting obstacle course,” the IJ pointed out.
The family challenged the use of eminent domain to take their land because the park was a pretext, but the judges allowed it.
“This is about more than our family business,” Hank Brinkmann said in a statement released through his lawyers. “Our case is about defending the right of everyone’s family business to stay in business when they play by the rules. We look forward to asking the U.S. Supreme Court to stop eminent domain abuse.”
Two judges in the majority admitted there was no dispute that “the decision to create the park was a pretext for defeating the Brinkmanns’ commercial use.”
But they said courts “do not inquire into alleged pretexts and motives.”
One judge, dissenting, warned, the ruling was “gutting an important constitutional protection for property.”
In fact, “the court’s decision grants governments virtually unlimited power over private property—as long as the governments are willing to act in bad faith,” the dissent charges.
The ruling also creates uncertainty regarding eminent domain all across the nation.
“The federal courts have too often treated property rights as second class citizens, but the takings clause is written right there in the Fifth Amendment,” said Institute for Justice Attorney Jeff Redfern. “The Supreme Court has in recent years paid careful attention to the plain language of the Constitution and this case is an opportunity to be clear that eminent domain cannot be used in bad faith to stop lawful businesses.”
WND SPECIAL REPORT – “IT’S TRUMP VS. SWAMP PSYCHOPATHS”: From the Biden administration’s enthusiastic support for amputating body parts of troubled children, to its obsession with bringing as many millions of illegal aliens, terrorists and Chinese soldiers as possible into America, it is increasingly clear that many of this nation’s current leaders are, to put it plainly, stark raving mad.
Indeed, psychiatric experts are finally documenting how the symptom profiles of scary conditions like “Borderline Personality Disorder” and “Narcissistic Personality Disorder” PERFECTLY MATCH today’s top leaders.
One groundbreaking peer-reviewed study published in 2023 documents how left-wing extremism is closely associated with “psychopathic tendencies.” Likewise, retired psychiatrist Brad Lyles, M.D., explains how “one way of understanding the increasingly outlandish beliefs and behaviors of the left is through the lens of Borderline Personality Disorder.” And one of America’s top forensic psychiatrists, Lyle Rossiter, M.D., described Barack Obama’s mental state as “Malignant Narcissistic Personality Disorder.”
Consider a typical description of sociopathy: “Sociopaths are often well-liked because of their charm and high charisma, but they do not usually care about other people. They think mainly of themselves and often blame others for the things that they do. They have a complete disregard for rules and lie constantly. They seldom feel guilt or learn from punishments.” Remind you of anyone?
From Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to their presidential Cabinet – including Attorney General Merrick Garland, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra – all of these people “have a complete disregard for rules and lie constantly.”
But it’s not just Democrat leaders. Multiple surveys now show how rank-and-file Democrats are TWICE as likely to be diagnosed with a mental disorder as Republicans – from depression to bipolar disorder to schizophrenia to narcissistic personality disorder. All this and much more is stunningly laid out in the March edition of WND’s critically acclaimed Whistleblower magazine, “IT’S TRUMP VS. SWAMP PSYCHOPATHS.” Don’t miss it – you will see the whole political-cultural-spiritual war raging in the U.S.A. in a whole new light.
WHISTLEBLOWER is available in both the popular print edition and a state-of-the-art digital version, either single issues or discounted annual subscriptions.
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