The great Bush library land grab

Four Texas universities are fighting to host the George W. Bush Presidential Library. And although three of them are religious schools, it appears they may be using un-Christian means to win the honor, according to the New York Sun:

DALLAS - The school favored to host the George W. Bush Presidential Library, Dallas's Southern Methodist University, may encounter a snag next week in the form of a lawsuit alleging that the school has improperly seized local homes in order to secure land for the proposed library site.

Amid increasing outrage among Republicans over the use of eminent domain and other coercive measures to obtain private property for public projects, a case in Dallas County's 134th Civil District Court, which is set to begin on Tuesday, will determine whether the university violated its legal obligations to local homeowners in an effort to secure the land currently occupied by the University Gardens condominium complex, a potential library site.

Gary Vodicka, a nearby property owner involved in the lawsuit, finds ironies abound:

"To acquire the land to build the Bush Library they have breached numerous legal obligations, they've intimidated, misrepresented things, kicked old people out of their homes," said Mr. Vodicka, who owns four units in the complex. "It's amazing to see how ruthless a Christian university can be."

"They want to take my home," he added, saying it was paradoxical that "homesteads" would be seized for the library of a Republican president. "It's in the spirit of all this eminent domain crap ... Where's the notion of private property in this country?"

I contacted a Dallas acquaintance this morning to see what she knew about the situation, and this was her only comment:

They're snatching up people's houses to make room for Bush's library? I mean, how many buildings will they really need?

(Hat tip to Arkansas Daily Blog)