South Carolina Property Rights

The Castle Coalition has released a report, grading each of the states based on their efforts to protect private property owners and their rights based on changes in their respective state laws.  The Castle Coalition is the Institute for Justice's nationwide grassroots property rights activism project that teaches home and small business owners how to protect themselves and stand up to abuse by governments and developers who seek to use eminent domain to take private property for their own gain.  Stated below is the letter grade, as given by the Castle Coalition, along with a description of the changes that have occurred since Kelo v. City of New London.

South Carolina Castle Coalition letter grade of

In 2006, members of the State Legislature took action in pursuing additional support for private property owners and a constitutional amendment was passed, which now supports private property and business owners against condemnation proceedings for economic development.

This amendment is very specific with the fact that it prohibits municipalities from condemning private property for economic development and now requires that private property must be deemed blighted and a public health risk before a municipality can pursue with eminent domain. Prior to this amendment, local governments were able to use eminent domain with the loosely defined term of “blighted” under state law. Additionally, if a property is considered a health risk and is blighted, then it must be evaluated on an individual basis.

Summary

A constitutional amendment is undoubtedly the best way to promote reform and to uphold a citizen’s constitutional rights in eminent domain cases. South Carolina receives a high rating because of the substantial amount of reform since the landmark case of Kelo v. City of New London, which inherently eliminates the transferring of private property to a private party.