NBC News correspondent Lloyd Dobyns once filed a videotaped report that secret Vietnam peace negotiations were being conducted in a building which had once housed an elegant brothel in the suburbs of Paris, “which is appropriate, since the one thing we know is that someone in there is almost certainly getting screwed.”

Mr. Dobyns recalled that his handlers in New York called back, advising him, “Good report; we just need to change one little thing ...”

Mr. Dobyns’ 30-year-old analysis would surely apply to the progress of a pair of eminent domain “reform” measures currently being rear-ended in this year’s session of the Nevada Legislature.

As initially introduced by Sen. Terry Care, D-Las Vegas, Senate Bill 326 would have prevented government entities in Nevada from seizing private land and claiming it was for “public use” when in fact all the bureaucrats intend to do is set the land aside as pretty “green space,” rather than allowing the private owners to use the land in some perfectly legal way, like ... oh, building houses.

The original language was specifically designed to protect the 1,000-acre former Ballardini Ranch in Washoe County, whose owners have indeed been stymied in attempt after attempt to win zoning approvals to provide 200 upscale homes for Reno residents.

(The Washoe County Commission filed suit to acquire the Ballardini Ranch through eminent domain last August. The Commission is offering to pay $18.6 million -- less than 10 percent of what the owners say the land is worth as home sites.)

But after discussions with other lawmakers -- including Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, and Assemblyman Bernie Anderson, D-Sparks -- Mr. Care removed that provision from his bill Tuesday. Mr Care is now content to let the courts decide what to do, he says.

Problem is, the courts are only supposed to make sure the law is enforced as written. It’s the sworn duty of our legislators -- a duty Sen. Care just threw up his hands and abdicated -- to enact and repeal laws, making sure the result protects our property rights by adhering to the limited-government precepts of our state and federal constitutions.

A lot of good it does to tell victims of these wrongful and excessive land seizures that they can “go to court.” Many lower courts now refuse to consider constitutional challenges, deferring to the U.S. Supreme Court. And it can take hundreds of thousands of dollars out of pocket to get a case before that body.

Take the Pappas family of Las Vegas. They spent that kind of money -- and the better part of a decade -- seeking a review of the improper seizure of their non-blighted land in downtown Las Vegas. In the end, the Supreme Court refused to hear their case.

Ironically, Sen. Care says the remaining portion of his bill -- designed to make it harder for municipalities to condemn and steal private land (oh, pardon me: they always offer to pay some bargain basement “appraised value,” never the land-owner’s asking price) by requiring that a higher percentage of parcels be proved to be “blighted” -- is designed to help people like Mrs. Carole Pappas and her children, who eventually accepted a compromise settlement for their once-thriving retail block (now a mostly empty parking garage across Fremont Street from the mostly empty city’s Neonecropolis redevelopment project.)

But not to worry. Virtually everyone testifying about these proposals in Carson City has been a government functionary (since those who might oppose such seizures have mostly been reduced to penury) -- neatly coiffed functionaries traveling on the taxpayers’ dime to moan and shred crocodile tears over how “difficult” this will make it for them to “assemble large enough parcels” for more ambitious redevelopment schemes ... most of which trail track records like that of Las Vegas’ own Neonopolis.

Pardon me, but where in our Constitution are Nevada’s counties and cities authorized to seize private property and then play developer, using someone else’s money (ours) to decide what kinds of projects would be “nice” to subsidize?

Isn’t it part of the genius of the American free market to allow such decisions to be made only by those who are willing to risk their own capital on a “best guess” at what kinds of enterprises customers will patronize?

Mr. Care’s SB326 originally passed the Senate on a 16-4 vote on April 25. The vote was reopened later that night and three Northern Nevada senators changed their votes, resulting in a final 12-7 passage. The turncoats who decided Nevadans’ property rights weren’t all that important, after all, were Sens. Randolph Townsend, R-Reno, Bernice Mathews, D-Reno, and Dean Rhoads, R-Tuscarora,

In the lower chamber, another eminent domain reform bill proposed by Assemblyman William Horne is already being gutted like a fish. In all likelihood, Mr. Care’s brave attempt will end up suffering the same fate.Your Nevada Legislature: Whether it’s blowing $600 million in windfall tax revenues in a drunken-sailor spending spree, or going in to eviscerate your property rights like a guy in a raincoat with a chainsaw, no job is too large or too messy, for the Gang of 63!