Is a shopping mall a public purpose?

It's been awhile since I've posted, but life has been inordinately busy, having started a new job with Congressman Todd Akin of Missouri and returning from a beautiful and belated Honeymoon to Switzerland. Nevertheless, I had a spare moment this evening to blog and wanted to expand upon Win's entry of June 24 regarding the already-notorious Supreme Court decision of Kelo v. City of New London. In this case, the city of New London through the power of eminent domain condemned houses along the shore for the purpose of creating a new development with a hotel and office complex.

While the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution enables governments, both local and federal, to use the power of eminent domain if the property holders are justly compensated and the seizure is for a "public purpose," one has to wonder whether the authors of the Bill of Rights, George Mason and James Madison, ever envisioned that the power of eminent domain would be used to evict persons from their homes so that governments could build property for what in my view is a "private purpose." I think not.