Government Has Found Yet Another Way To Violate The Rights Of Citizens -- This Time, An Immigrant Property Owner
Such a rotten and awful thing the city of Dallas is doing to a man who, in 1974, came here from Kenya, worked hard, and built a business -- but doesn't fit in with the hipster business plans they have for the area his auto repair shop is located.

(Back then, reports the WSJ, he opened on Ross Avenue, which was a major auto district.)

But the neighborhood has since gentrified and the city now sees the street as a gateway to its arts district.

Mr. Mbogo's auto shop has made him an honest living and sewn his family into the Dallas community, but Hinga's Automotive Company doesn't conform to the city's new hip vision of itself. In 2005 the city changed its zoning laws to exclude auto-related businesses on Ross Avenue. Though Mr. Mbogo owns his property and his repair shop gets top reviews, he is on the cusp of having to shut down the business he spent years working to build.

Since the city rezoned the area to force him and other businesses out, he has been in a fight for time. Originally given a five-year amortization date of 2010, he won an extension to 2013. In 2013 he applied for a special 10-year extension but was given only two more years to use his property as he wished. On Wednesday he will appeal to the Dallas City Council in a last bid to avoid going out of business.

The city defends stripping Mr. Mbogo of his livelihood on grounds that this will allow the area to become more developed. But Mr. Mbogo has no plans to open a yoga shop or wine bar, which means he will have to sell the property, likely at a discount because buyers know it is a forced sale.

Amortization in his case violates Mr. Mbogo's property rights, and its retroactivity strips him of due process. That should alarm Texas voters, who acted to protect property rights after the U.S. Supreme Court's notorious Kelo decision in 2005. In 2009 the state, with overwhelming support from voters, amended its constitution to ban private takings in the name of economic development.

Like eminent domain, amortization takes advantage of property owners, often those of small means who are least equipped to fight.

The amazing Institute for Justice has taken his case.

Property rights are foundational to a democracy, and like so many other rights in our society, they are being eroded. Few people seem to notice or care.

I hope those who do value them donate to the few organizations (Institute for Justice and theFIRE.org among them) who defend the rights of people like Mr. Mbogo pro bono.

As someone who was the recipient of a pro bono defense -- by First Amendment lawyer Marc Randazza, when a TSA worker tried to go after not only my Fourth Amendment rights but my right to speak out about her violation -- I want to remind people that "pro bono" does not mean free.

These defenses can be extremely expensive, especially if they go to court. But they are not just cases for the individual involved. By defending the rights of people like Mr. Mbogo and me, lawyers and organizations who take these cases ultimately defend the rights of all of us.