You can’t tell me what to do with my land!
At P2P-Foundation here . Extracted from James Howard Kunstler ‘s book “ The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America’s Man-Made Landscape “, pages 26-27. Individualism, at first, only saps the virtues of public life; but in the long run it attacks and destroys all others and is at length absorbed in selfishness. — Alexis de Tocqueville This is embodied today in the popular phrase, “You can’t tell me what to do with my land.” The “you” here might be a neighbor, the community, or the government. The government’s power to regulate land use was limited under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the constitution. The Fifth states that private property cannot be taken for public use without due process of law and just compensation — the right to public hearings and payment at market value — and the Fourteenth reiterates the due process clause. All subsequent land-use law in America has hinged on whether it might deprive somebody of the economic value of their land. A...