It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. Two Chester County school districts each needed land. One has chosen to enter into a consensual agreement with the owner to buy the land it wants. The other has chosen to resort to theft. Phoenixville schools have been negotiating with a landowner to buy a property on Hare Hill road and has reached an agreed price with an owner that, according to the Daily Local, is “motivated to sell.” [1]
Downingtown Area School District is also eying a parcel of land. Except, unlike the Hare Hill property, at least some of these owners do not want to sell. According to the news, after the School District voted to use eminent domain to steal their homes, several owners left in tears. The district does not even plan to build a school immediately but feels the need to use force to obtain the land for future use.[2]
The 5th Amendment guarantees that private property shall not be taken for public use without just compensation. Unfortunately, the founders incorporated the immoral and tyrannical concept of eminent domain into US law. It is a concept that is rooted in the idea that a sovereign monarch owns you and your property, and it is inherently incompatible with the idea that you own yourself and your property and have first claim on each. It’s hard to imagine a more unjust use of government force than to take somebody’s property by force while salving the collective conscience by means of a payment amount determined by the very government using the force. If I have a cupcake and do not want to sell it, and you offer me a dollar for it and I say no, and you point a gun at me and force me to give you my cupcake, the fact that you give me the dollar does not change the immorality of what you did. It is theft, plain and simple. Lack of consent makes it so.
This drama has played out over and over again in Chester County as local governments have become increasingly bold in their theft of private property for whatever trail, shopping center, school, or other use they deem currently essential. There is no “just compensation” without consent. Consent, not fair market price, makes it just. If you cannot offer enough to gain consent, and use force instead, you are a thief. Even if you voted on it first and the person with the gun is only your hireling. Government’s only just role, per the Declaration of Independence, is the protection of the inalienable rights of the people. The immoral loophole of eminent domain, increasingly abused in Chester County, should be closed. Whether somebody is attempting to violate your bodily rights or your property rights, no means no. Or, at least, it ought to.