PROTECT YOUR PROPERTY RIGHTS

Friends:

This Friday marks the one-year anniversary of the day that the Supreme
Court put every property in America up for grabs to the highest bidder. On
June 23, 2005, the Court ruled that private property can be seized through
eminent domain for private economic development on the mere possibility of
increased tax revenue or jobs. Following the decision, Congressmen James
Sensenbrenner and John Conyers - the majority and minority leaders of the
House Judiciary Committee - co-sponsored H.R. 4128, the Private Property
Rights Protection Act of 2005. This bill will cut off federal economic
development funding for governments using the power of eminent domain to
take property and transfer it for private commercial development. It will
strongly discourage the large numbers of abuses we are now seeing in the
wake of Kelo.


By a vote of 376 - 38, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 4128 on
November 3, 2005 - and it has remained in the Senate Judiciary Committee
untouched ever since. California Senator Dianne Feinstein serves on the
Senate Judiciary Committee. Contact Senator Feinstein TODAY and tell her:

It's time for the Senate to pass this bill NOW - It's been one year since
the Kelo decision and seven months since the House passed H.R. 4128. The
Senate needs to do what the Supreme Court was unwilling to do and protect
this country's home and small business owners.

Any blight exception in the bill must be narrowly defined and only for
properties that pose an immediate threat to public health or safety - Most
condemnations for economic development take place under the claim that the
area is supposedly "blighted." The federal bill has an exception allowing
local governments to still receive federal money if it takes properties
that are harmful to public health or safety. The question is whether this
exception will allow taking only severely troubled properties or whether it
will allow cities to take any property just by calling it "blighted."
Unless "blight" is narrowly defined as something that is an immediate
threat to public health or safety, that term will gut the bill and render
it worthless.

Senator Feinstein's contact information is below. We strongly encourage
you to contact both her home and Washington, D.C. offices. Her home state
office addresses are also listed; visiting to voice your concerns is a very
effective and powerful way to show your support for eminent domain reform.
If you'd like to send her an email instead, you can do so through this
link: https://action.popuvox.com/default.aspx?actionID=270.

This bill will not pass without your voice! With your help, we'll be able
to stop tax-hungry governments and land-hungry developers from seizing
private property for their own private purposes. Take a few minutes to
protect your home or business and contact Senator Feinstein TODAY!


Christina Walsh
Assistant Castle Coalition Coordinator
Institute for Justice
901 N. Glebe Road, Suite 900
Arlington, VA 22203
(703) 682-9320
www.ij.org
www.castlecoalition.org

Feinstein, Dianne (D - CA)
331 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-3841

One Post Street, Suite 2450
San Francisco CA 94104
(415) 393-0707

11111 Santa Monica Boulevard, Suite 915
Los Angeles, CA 90025
(310) 914-7300

750 "B" Street,
Suite 1030
San Diego, CA 92101
(619) 231-9712

2500 Tulare Street,
Suite 4-290
Fresno, CA 93721
(559) 485-7430