Judge Souter, You Like Apples?

Every four years our national attention focuses on New Hampshire, a state charged with the task of holding the first primary in the election of the next president of the United States. And every four years these citizens smirk back at the rest of the country, raise a patriotic middle finger, and vote for some outlandish and possibly unelectable candidate - like Tsongas, Buchanan or McCain.

It's an smart, ornery, sarcastic, and very liberty-loving state.

Supreme Court Justice Souter is from New Hampshire, but doesn't appear to share those virtues. He's the judge who cast a decisive vote in the Kelo decision on allowing corporations the right to use eminent domain to take the houses of average citizens for development. This decision did something miraculous, by managing to almost uniformly tick off people on both Left and Right.

Now the citizens of Weare, New Hampshire have concluded that some land in town - land where Judge David Souter happens to have located his home - might just make a lovely spot for a brand new hotel. They intend to use the revised definition of eminent domain to seize the property. Right now it's supported by folks on the Right, but since the irony is so immensely satisfying, I hope that the effort can be broadened to include friends from all over the political spectrum.

HAT TIP, NIXGUY