A couple days ago I blogged about what I now know to be the Institute for Injustice, wondering why this entity that calls itself the Institute for Justice, claiming to work to help victims of eminent domain abuse and freedom of speech ,was not all over the Steve Doeung Carter Avenue Eminent Domain Abuse Case like a fat fly on a Texas Longhorn.In the blogging about the Institute for Injustice I asked if anyone knew if this was a legit operation or not.
Well. I soon heard from Chris who had heard from another Chris, that being Chris Grodecki of the Castle Coalition and Institute for Justice.
I'll copy the comment from Chris below, followed by two comments from the ever ubiquitous Anonymous....
Chris said...
Regarding the Institute for Justice, I have been down that road before. They do not get involved in eminent domain disputes involving energy companies because the "public good" argument tends to favor energy or utility companies.
As Chris Grodecki of the Castle Coalition and Institute for Justice wrote to me in November of 2008:
"As you may know, we provide resources for property owners threatened by eminent domain for private economic development. Situations that involve energy companies are bit more complicated because those companies are considered common carriers. Because they are licensed by the government to provide services to the general public, their uses of eminent domain are very likely to be considered as "public use" by the courts. We, unfortunately, do not get directly involved in situations that regard takings for "public use"; that's not a judgment, however, on the merits of your situation, which while fully legal, doesn't necessarily make it any less wrong."
Activate your grassroots! Educate yourself and talk to your neighbors. It does take stamina and patience, however, because you will have to "saddle your own horse." Compare notes with our experience: Spectra Energy
Anonymous then said...
Let me get this right: the Institute for Justice only takes cases they can win and will not take cases involving energy companies because THEY HAVE DECIDED THAT THEY ARE UNBEATABLE. Either that claim is pretty absurd or this Steve on Carter guy's been doing some mighty impressive "lawyering" --esp. with being disabled and untrained in the law in any way. With this kind of attitude from self-proclaimed public interest firms fighting for justice and liberty, old Steve might just be better off fighting on his own --with "We the people" supporting him in any way possible. This kind of stuff is what gives lawyers and even the legal system a bad name and Shakespeare...nevermind.
And then Anonymous had more to say...
One more thing: if the services to the "public good" provided by these oil and gas companies are so overwhelmingly helpful to the American public and even the economy, then let Wal-mart and big trucking companies have the rights of eminent domain to take people's front yards to provide overnight stops so that they can drive safely in their work to provide cheaper consumer goods of all sorts and get the needed rest without having to find sparse and costly truck stops/motels. Besides, trucks idling overnight on people's front yards don't hardly ever blow up and destroy whole neighborhoods like a 16-24 inch natural gas lines do on a fairly regular intervals.
On a totally different, yet related to the Anonymous comments, note. Anonymous typed in his comments twice. This happens when commentators do not notice the "comments moderated" message. I have to moderate the comments or it would be an awful lot of bother to go through the various posts to delete inappropriate comments. Every day there are dozens of spam comments, nonsense comments and demented comments. Moderating the comments makes it way simpler. Sorry you had to go to the bother of typing in your comments twice, Anonymous, but I'm glad you did.
