To the editor:

The U.S. Supreme Court last week provided the ultimate approval for the completion of the South Lawrence Trafficway. The decision of SCOTUS has angered a huge number of people, including me, but their decision is the law of the land.

Five justices determined, “The government can now take your home and sell it to a private developer. Nothing is to prevent the state from replacing any Motel 6 with a Ritz-Carlton, any home with a shopping mall, or any farm with a factory.” So wrote Justice Sandra Day O’Connor in her dissent from the majority in Kelo v. the city of New London.

We in Kansas enjoy our interstate highways, our turnpike and multiple flood-control reservoirs. How did these greatly beneficial attributes to our well-being come to be? Answer: The exercise of the constitutionally provided right of eminent domain. To exercise the right to utilize eminent domain, it is required that the taking of the property is justified as being in the public good and the landowner is properly compensated for the taking. (An oft-forgotten element of Milford Lake is that the entire city had to be moved up from the river valley, including the replacement of an entire cemetery.)

Complimenting the excellent Journal-World article of June 21 by Roger Boyd, can’t we now proceed to use this flawed, but it’s the law, SCOTUS decision to legally condemn the right-of-way for and build the SLT?

Jim Winn,

Lawrence