Your editorial on the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on eminent domain was right on target; it is indeed frightening (and upsetting). The potential for government abuse is unlimited. Property owners will be at the mercy and whim of government officials without a legal leg to stand on.

The taking of private property for purposes other than for public use is wrong, no matter how many tax dollars the city, town, municipality, state, etc., will gain by such action. Tax dollars should not be a criteria for the confiscation of a person’s property.

In effect, it means property owners, particularly those who do not have power or money, can never feel secure in knowing that their property will be there for them or their heirs.

Can this really be in a country that boasts of individual freedoms and the right of its citizens to own property?

Of equal importance, it is my understanding that if property taken by eminent domain is not used for the purpose for which it was taken due to a change in plans or other reasons, the property taken does not need to and usually is not returned to the previous owner from which it was taken and can be disposed of in any way at the discretion of the government agency that took the property. That, too, is wrong.

Two wrongs can never equal a right.

Our U.S. senators and representatives should introduce a bill that will give strong protection to individual rights to own property without having this “knife” hanging over property owners’ heads.

Jean Paul and Eva A. Labonte, Greene

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