Kelo Drives Multi-State Bid to Adopt Model Oregon Property Rights Plan

Backlash from a landmark Supreme Court case that increased local government eminent domain power is bolstering efforts by property rights groups to expand to other states a recently approved Oregon plan requiring state compensation for property value reductions due to environmental protection and land use regulations . But the Progressive Legislative Action Network (PLAN), a liberal group seeking to pass progressive legislation at the state level, is urging a grassroots effort to fight against these efforts, citing the Oregon measure as particularly troublesome. [...] [I]n a report released last month, Governing the Nation from the Statehouses: The Rightwing Agenda in the States and How Progressives Can Fight Back, PLAN cites Measure 37 as an example of tactics conservatives are using "to shut down the enforcement of business regulations across the states." "Progressives need to use every tool of grassroots mobilization to build unity among progressive state legislators and deploy both strong policies and innovative strategies to beat the conservatives at their own game," the report says. "Our overarching strategy has to be finding the best public policy and championing it with effective and cohesive messaging."