Tag: private property

Is Banning a Church From Building on Its Property’s Just “A Mere Inconvenience”? The Supreme Court Will Decide

The Supreme Court just agreed to take up a case that could reshape how every church in America is treated when it tries to build. Last week, the Court granted certiorari in Missionaries of Saint John the Baptist v. Frederic to define what counts as a “substantial burden” on religious exercise under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA).

A Catholic religious organization in Park Hills, Kentucky, wanted to build a small chapel on land next to its church. The construction would be about the size of a backyard swimming pool. The city’s board approved the permit, but neighbors sued, and the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled against the church.

The court’s reasoning was alarming. It said that being barred from building a chapel was “a mere inconvenience” because the church could build a smaller one somewhere else. It also called the burden self-imposed because the church knew about the ordinance before it applied.

Under that logic, a complete ban on a religious use of your own property isn’t a substantial burden as long as a judge thinks you could worship some other way. Judges, not believers, would decide what matters to the faith.

The ACLJ filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to take this case. We told the Justices that lower courts have been eroding RLUIPA’s protections by adding qualifiers Congress never wrote. Congress passed this law to stop local governments from treating churches as second-class property owners, and it told courts to read the statute in favor of broad protection of religious exercise.

The grant confirms that RLUIPA’s land-use protections have gone too long without guidance from the Supreme Court. Now that the Court has taken the case, the ACLJ will file an amicus brief on the merits, standing with houses of worship across the country as the Justices decide this question.

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Maine Democrat Troy Jackson Channels Zohran Mamdani – Backs Government Seizure of Private Property

Troy Jackson is the far left Democrat who replaced Graham Platner, after his campaign imploded due to credible allegations of rape.

In terms of ideology, Jackson appears to be aligned with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. He apparently agrees with the idea of using the government to seize private property.

It’s hard to believe that rugged Mainers would support this.

FOX News reports, via AOL:

Government land-grab agenda hits key Senate race as Dem backs property takeovers echoing Mamdani

Graham Platner’s replacement in the Maine Senate race suggested the government should be able to take over private property when necessary, appearing to echo socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s housing agenda.

Troy Jackson, a Democrat running for the Senate, came under fire for suggesting the government should be able to take over private property when necessary. The comments drew fresh scrutiny to a candidate the Pine Tree State’s GOP chair previously dubbed “Maine’s Mamdani” to Fox News Digital, as debates over government intervention in housing and private ownership gain new attention.

“It’s a major issue. The greed that’s happening right now in this country that people in mobile home parks are feeling is like something I’ve never seen,” Jackson told a small crowd of residents at Blueberry Ridge Mobile Village, one of several Maine trailer parks where concerns about costs, quality-of-life and ownership arose.

“The other thing that I do hear a lot about, too, is how [landlords] won’t do anything for services. And that is completely unfair and not right. And we have to make that change. I feel strongly that if needed, the state should be able to come in [and] take these places over. Some people will say that that’s insane,” Jackson told the residents in Wells, the town next to the politically-notable Kennebunkport.

“But until the people get the chance to start a co-op or whatever, there should be a way to hold these, so that you don’t see private-equity coming in and making the killing on these parks.”

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Indiana Man Charged with HOMICIDE After Shooting ‘Suspicious’ Man Trying to Break into His Home – Police Let Would-Be Burglar Go Minutes Before Incident

An Indiana man has been busted for killing a ‘suspicious’ person in what he argues was self-defense. At the same time, evidence also shows police let the perpetrator walk minutes before the incident occurred.

As WANE reported on Tuesday, 30-year-old Fort Wayne resident Martell Pickens was home on May 7 when someone reported a suspicious person in his neighborhood. The individual, later identified as 25-year-old Khadolphee Taylor, was seen on video allegedly trying to break into various vehicles.

Taylor then attempted to break into Pickens’s home. Pickens armed himself and went outside to confront Taylor.

Pickens demanded to know what Taylor was doing and then told him to “back up.” But Taylor ignored Pickens and continued to advance toward him.

Pickens then shot him once in the chest.

When Fort Wayne police officers arrived on the scene, Taylor was bleeding from the gunshot wound.

He was then rushed to a nearby hospital and was later pronounced dead.

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Radical Maine Democrat Senate Nominee Wants the State to Seize Private Property from Mainers: “The State Should Be Able to Come In and Take These Places Over”

Far-left Maine U.S. Senate nominee Troy Jackson just told a crowd of mobile-home park residents that the government should be able to take private property when he doesn’t like who owns it.

At a Labor Day weekend campaign stop Saturday at Blueberry Ridge Mobile Village in Wells, Jackson said the state should step in and take over parks owned by out-of-state companies and private equity firms.

“I feel strongly that, if needed, the state should be able to come in, to take these places over,” Jackson told residents gathered in a backyard, according to the Portland Press Herald.

He added that the state should hold the sites until residents can take them over “so you don’t see these private equity (firms) coming in and making a killing on these parks.”

Video of Jackson’s remarks was circulated by RNC Research.

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Arizona Rancher Tells Trump That Dem Gov Katie Hobbs Wants to Evict Him From Family Land to Build Foreign Company’s Solar Energy Plant

An Arizona rancher told President Trump on Friday that Democratic Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs would have taken his land away and given it to a foreign renewable energy company if the Trump administration had not intervened. 

Casey Murph, a fifth-generation Arizona rancher who leases land from the state for his H-Y Cattle Company in Navajo County, said that Hobbs wants to take away his land for a Danish energy company, Ørsted, to develop.

According to American Stewarts of Liberty, Murph’s family has used the roughly 4,000 acres of land in Northern Arizona since the 1870s, decades before Arizona even became a state in 1912.

In 2022, Murph began receiving notices from the state that foreign developers wanted his land for a renewable-energy project. In 2025, Hobbs signed an executive order granting large-scale energy infrastructure manufacturers priority access to state lands and easing restrictions on the so-called green energy projects.

“Her task force created a map of all the state lands throughout the state and color-coded those lands according to solar favorability,” Murph previously said, noting that his land was designated as less suitable for agriculture than renewable energy.

During an executive order signing ceremony on Friday, Murph revealed to the President that Hobbs wants to kick him off his family’s land of over a century to build a solar energy plant.

“It’s been in my family for over 100 years. Katie Hobbs has offered those lands up to solar development companies,” Murph said.

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Toronto homeowner charged after opening fire during potential car theft

The case has raised the issue of how Canadians can protect themselves, their families and their property when faced with a potential break-in or theft.

Earlier this year in Vaughan, a homeowner got his gun out to protect himself and his family during a home invasion. York Regional Police did not press charges in that case.

The Toronto case has also renewed attention on “Castle Law” protections in Canada. The idea has gained support from some Canadians who believe people should be able to defend themselves and their property when police cannot respond immediately.

Police response times can be 10 to 12 minutes, and an armed attacker can do significant harm during that time.

The broader concern raised was that Canadians defending themselves, their families, homes and businesses can face criminal charges while dealing with people who have entered their property.

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Judge Blocks Mamdani’s Pied-à-Terre Tax After Homeowners File Lawsuit

A New York judge on Monday temporarily blocked NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s new pied-à-terre tax, which hits New Yorkers who own a valuable second home.

Last month, Mamdani implemented a so-called luxury property tax on second homes valued at $5 million or more. The property tax also affected certain co-ops valued over $1 million.

Mamdani doxxed the homeowners after his Department of Finance published a database listing the names and addresses of the 960,000 properties.

“As per State law, a property roll was released for public inspection. From this list, DOF will identify properties that may be subject to the new non-primary residence property surcharge,” a Mamdani spox previously told Fox News.

Affluent homeowners said the database and doxxing could lead to harassment and violence.

Homeowners filed a lawsuit in New York’s Supreme Court to stop Mamdani’s property tax

The lawsuit argues that New York City bungled the execution of the new tax by “arbitrarily and capriciously” forcing hundreds of thousands of residents to prove they do not owe the tax.

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These Are The States With The Most Empty Homes

America faces a housing shortage, yet about 14.5 million homes across the country are vacant. How can both be true?

Using the latest U.S. Census Bureau data compiled by LendingTree, Visual Capitalist’s Dorothy Neufeld created this map showing the share of vacant housing units in every state.

About one in 10 U.S. housing units is vacant, but most are not permanently sitting unused.

Nearly 4.7 million vacant units are seasonal or recreational homes, 2.6 million are available for rent, and fewer than 800,000 are actively listed for sale. This helps explain why states with large vacation-home markets, including Maine, Vermont, Florida, and Hawaii, record some of the nation’s highest vacancy rates.

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Government Will Steal Your Land to Feed the AI Machine

Private land may be seized to construct transmission lines required by the rapidly expanding AI data-center industry. If a property owner refuses to sell an easement voluntarily, a utility may resort to eminent domain, provided the project is declared a “public use” and the owner receives what the government calls “just compensation.” Let us call this what it is: legalized theft.

The government does not ask whether the land has been in your family for generations, whether you built your home with your own hands, or whether the money offered would ever replace what is being destroyed. A bureaucrat determines the supposed market value, a judge blesses the taking, and armed government agents will eventually remove you if you continue to resist. They hide behind legal phrases because “confiscation for corporate benefit” would expose the practice for what it has become.

The United States already has more than 3,000 data centers, with another 1,500 under development. These facilities consumed more than 4% of total US electricity in 2024, and demand is rising rapidly as companies construct gigawatt-scale AI campuses. New transmission lines must cross somebody’s property, and when the owner says no, the state may simply decide that no does not matter.

Seventy percent of Americans reportedly oppose having a data center built near their community. These facilities can consume enormous quantities of electricity and water while creating noise, traffic, pollution, and higher infrastructure costs. Health risks are not fully understood although reports of increased cancer risks are prevalent in communities near these facilities. Yet the same governments that claim to represent the public are preparing to override that opposition because the technology companies have more influence than the families whose land stands in their way.

This is already happening. CBS News reported that Georgia Power acquired more than 300 parcels for a transmission project intended largely to serve data centers. The utility said that between 70% and 80% of the new line’s capacity would support data-center demand. Families were informed that if they refused the proposed sale, Georgia Power could pursue condemnation.

Ansley Brown’s family sold the home her grandparents had built after receiving an eminent-domain notice. She called the process “theft,” and she was absolutely correct. Georgia Power would not even identify the data-center companies benefiting from the project, citing customer confidentiality. The landowner must surrender everything, but the corporate beneficiary is permitted to remain hidden. That tells you exactly who the government serves.

The Fifth Amendment states that private property shall not be taken for public use without just compensation. The government has twisted those words beyond recognition. A transmission line that principally benefits unnamed private technology corporations is now presented as a public necessity merely because the electricity passes through the broader grid. Under that reasoning, nearly any private commercial project can be disguised as public infrastructure.

The Supreme Court opened the floodgates with Kelo v. City of New London in 2005. The Court ruled 5–4 that private property could be taken and transferred to another private party as part of an economic-development plan. The politicians promised jobs, tax revenue, and revitalization. The proposed Pfizer-related development never materialized as promised, and much of the condemned neighborhood remained vacant for years. Families lost their homes so politicians could gamble with property that was never theirs.

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Kamala Harris’ new $8M mansion is in a neighborhood with virtually no black residents

Despite a career-long commitment to combating racial disparities in housing and touting the importance of living among Black people, former Vice President Kamala Harris’ new California mansion is situated in a neighborhood with virtually no racial diversity.

Harris’ new 4,000-square-foot property, which reports indicate she acquired for $8.15 million, is located in the exclusive seaside community of Point Dume and includes ocean views, multiple wine fridges, private golf greens and enough parking to accommodate five vehicles.

Point Dume is situated entirely within Census tract 8004.08, which the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey estimated was just 0.2% Black and roughly 94% White as of 2019.

Harris’ choice of neighborhood may surprise longtime observers given past comments she has made about the importance of living among other Black Americans.

“When you’re at (a historically Black college or university), and especially one with the size and with the history of Howard University — and also in the context of also being in D.C., which was known forever as being ‘Chocolate City’ — it just becomes about you understanding that there is a whole world of people who are like you,” Harris told a Washington Post reporter in 2019, reflecting on her experience growing up in primarily White social circles then attending a historically Black college in a predominantly African American city.

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