As the battle to stop Sustainable Development grows, it is important that activists have clear definitions of their points as they deal with elected officials and planners who are making policy in their community. Below is a start in defining private property rights.

In a “Fifth Amendment” treatise by Washington State Supreme Court Justice Richard B. Sanders (12/10/97), he writes: “Our state, and most other states, define property in an extremely broad sense.” That definition is as follows:

Property in a thing consists not merely in its ownership and possession, but in the unrestricted right of use, enjoyment, and disposal. Anything which destroys any of the elements of property, to that extent, destroys the property itself. The substantial value of property lies in its use. If the right of use be denied, the value of the property is annihilated and ownership is rendered a barren right.

As a Founding Father, John Adams, said:

The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the law of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.

President Calvin Coolidge said:

Ultimately, property rights and personal rights are the same thing.

Rancher and Property Rights Activist Wayne Hage said:

If you don’t have the right to own and control property then you are property.

Private Property Rights mean:

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Tom DeWeese (photo)