Leaving aside the fact that our nations Commander-in-Chief misidentified as a democracy the very republic over which he presides, it was indeed remarkable that such a sentiment could leave the lips, without a discernible smirk, of the very man who so recently had chosen to drown out the will of most ordinary citizens by signing a 2,700-page healthcare bill that few Americans supported.
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While Stevens was content to disregard the property rights of law-abiding Americans in Kelo, he has shown far greater respect for the property rights of criminals. Consider his verdict in Illinois v. Wardlow a case that centered around a Chicago man who, upon seeing multiple police vehicles converge on a part of town renowned as a drug-trafficking hotbed suddenly ran from the scene. Officers eventually caught the man and conducted a pat-down search, during which they found in his possession an illegally concealed handgun, for which they arrested him. Though the plaintiff argued that the officers actions had violated his Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure, the Court ruled against him in a split decision. Stevens authored the dissent, in which he was predictably joined by Justices Souter, Ginsburg, and Breyer.
