Preserving The American Political Philosophy

The Maine State Constitution: Article IV, Part Third: Legislative Powers Section 13. Special legislation. The Legislature shall, from time to time, provide, as far as practicable, by general laws, for all matters usually appertaining to special or private legislation.  Section 14. Corporations, formed under general laws. Corporations shall be formed under general laws, and shall not be created by special Acts of the Legislature, except for municipal purposes, and in cases where the objects of the corporation cannot otherwise be attained; and, however formed, they shall forever be subject to the general laws of the State. As one can see, The Maine State Constitution prohibits the legislature from chartering corporations as instrumentalities of the state. The only exception to the prohibition against chartering corporations by special act of legislation is for a municipal purpose and in the case where the objects of incorporation cannot be done otherwise, whic

Tweet This  http://goo.gl/v8sd33 Last Week Shawn Hannity aired a segment on eminent domain. The segment focused on row house homeowners in New Jersey who were being driven from their homes through the power of eminent domain in order to make way for a business development. The homeowners were not compensated well enough for their properties to afford a new home. In Maine we have a potential similar situation at The Brunswick Landing Maine’s Center for Innovation, chartered by special act of legislation under the name of The Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Corporation. The charter states that it is a “municipal corporation” and an “instrumentality of the state”- a contradiction in legal terms if ever there was one. The charter also grants this newly chartered “instrumentality of the state” the power of eminent domain over adjacent property. Making the MRRA a “municipal corporation” was clearly an attempt to get around Article IV Part 3 rd Section 14 of the Maine State cons