Relatives of at least one of the Supreme Court justices who gutted our property rights like a flopping fish in their loathsome June 23 "Kelo v. City of New London" decision make their homes in New Hampshire, John pointed out. And in some New Hampshire towns, 50 signatures on a petition are enough to call a town meeting to take a majority vote authorizing an eminent domain property seizure.

Why not demonstrate the real-world effect of the overturning of our Bill of Rights in "Kelo" by calling such a town meeting, seizing the home of, say, Justice David Souter's mother, bulldozing it, and re-naming the acreage "Constitution Park?" John asked.

Actually, I saw one problem.

"Kelo" throws out the 213-year-old Fifth Amendment restriction that eminent domain shall be employed only for "public uses" like roads and firehouses. And it does so for no reason other than the 5-4 liberal majority of the current court wants government to be able to do anything it damned well pleases. But it authorizes local governments to seize our properties and turn them over to wealthier private owners on the sole grounds that they promise to pay more property taxes -- such increased revenue now being defined as a "public use." You need a land use for Mrs. Souter's former property that will generate more revenue than the couple of grand per year the justice's mom now pays in property taxes, I pointed out.My friend John got that gleam in his eye. "A shooting range," he smiled.

I liked it.

(Some will object it's immoral to use the power of government in this way. But given what the penalty for treasonous violation of a sacred oath to "protect and defend the Constitution" ought to be, such punishment by the people of a forsworn defender of our rights seems pretty mild, to me.)

Apparently we weren't the only ones thinking this way, though.

"A private developer contacted the local government in Supreme Court Justice David Souter's hometown in New Hampshire yesterday asking that the property of the judge -- who voted in favor of a controversial decision allowing a city to take residents' homes for private development -- be seized to make room for a new hotel," reported News Editor Ron Strom of WorldNetDaily.com on June 29, in a story headlined "This Land Was Your Land." (http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=45029.)

"Logan Darrow Clements faxed a request to Chip Meany, the code enforcement officer of the town of Weare, N.H., seeking to start the application process to build a hotel on 34 Cilley Hill Road, the present location of Souter's home," the Web service reported.

(For a Google satellite view of the 8-acre property, go to: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=34+Cilley+Hill+Road+Weare,+New+Hampshire&spn=0.080166,0.125313&t=k&hl=en.)

Wrote Clements, a self-described Objectivist who has run for governor of California: "Although this property is owned by an individual, David H. Souter, a recent Supreme Court decision, Kelo v. City of New London, clears the way for this land to be taken by the government of Weare through eminent domain and given to my LLC for the purposes of building a hotel. The justification for such an eminent domain action is that our hotel will better serve the public interest as it will bring in economic development and higher tax revenue to Weare."

In seizing the private homes covered by the Kelo decision, the city of New London made no assertion that the neighborhood in question is "blighted" or in need of "redevelopment."

According to Mr. Clements, the proposed development, called "The Lost Liberty Hotel," will feature the "Just Desserts Cafe," and include a museum, open to the public, "featuring a permanent exhibit on the loss of freedom in America." Instead of a Gideon Bible in each room, guests will receive a free copy of Ayn Rand's novel "Atlas Shrugged."

Mr. Clements says the hotel must be built on this particular piece of land because it is a unique site -- "being the home of someone largely responsible for destroying property rights for all Americans."Souter and his family moved to Weare when he was an 11-year-old boy."This is not a prank," said Mr. Clements. "The town of Weare has five people on the Board of Selectmen. If three of them vote to use the power of eminent domain to take this land from Mr. Souter we can begin our hotel development."¨ John Babiarz told me Thursday that the Libertarians' parallel plan is still on track.

"We have our own plan as a plan -- just in case the (Clements) plan gets derailed,"¨ John said. "See www.cnht.org for more details." (The Web site of the Coalition of New Hampshire Taxpayers offers Weare residents a chance to sign the property seizure petition, online.) "We are going to do a petition-for-warrant article so that the citizens of Weare make the decision, not just the selectman. It looks like we have a lot of support."

While Mr. Clements currently makes a living in marketing and video production, he told WorldNetDaily he has had involvement in real estate development and is fully committed to the project.

Clements is CEO of Freestar Media, LLC, which is dedicated to fighting "the most deadly and destructive force on the planet: abusive governments," according to his own Web site.