How to Ruin a 9/11 Memorial

Memorializing those who died on Flight 93, heroically preventing it from becoming a massive suicide bomb, is a good and worthy goal. Of course, there's nothing in that description that includes "strongarming local landowners with absuive eminent domain practices."

The power of eminent domain, embodied in the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment, is so great that it nearly invites abuse, even when the government uses its power for constitutional, and even honorable, reasons.

Case in point: The U.S. Park Service has designed a memorial for Flight 93, the one that crashed in rural Pennsylvania on 9/11.  The plans have been in the works for some time, with the government and representatives of Flight 93’s victims working with the property owners—even explicitly assuring them in 2002 that eminent domain would not be used.

As time passed, however, and the self-imposed deadline to have a memorial in place for the 10-year anniversary of the tragedy grows nearer, the government has become impatient and now plans to condemn the land of the seven owners (representing about 500 of the planned 2,200 acre memorial and national park) who have not yet worked out a deal with the Park Service.

Cato @ Liberty: 9/11 Memorial? Good. Eminent Domain Abuse? Bad.