Navigable Stream, Dams, and Episode 3 of Legion

My Country – Navigable Stream

On February 23, 1903, the Supreme Court decided United States v. Lynah, 188 U.S. 445. The case involved where a dam on the Savannah River caused the flooding of a plantation. The Court held that the federal government had to pay the plantation owner for the damages.

Where the government of the United States, by the construction of a dam or other public works, so floods lands belonging to an individual as to totally destroy its value, there is a taking of private property within the scope of the Fifth Amendment.

However, three justices dissented. Justice White argued that regardless of the Government’s actions, no taking took place. If any action of the Government caused any flooding to a private citizen’s land, they would have a right to sue under this decision.

But by 1941, the Supreme Court moved towards Justice White’s opinion.

United States v. Chicago, M. & St.P. & P. R. Co., 312 U.S. 592 (1941)

A unanimous Court decided that

[t]he power of the Government over navigation covers the entire bed of a navigable stream, including all lands below ordinary high water mark. Whether title to the bed is retained by the State or is in the riparian owner, the rights of the title-holder are subservient to this dominant easement.

In this case, as in Lynah,  the Government’s improvement in a navigable stream resulted in the flooding of the plaintiffs’ land in and adjacent to a nonnavigable stream. Although Lynah was precedent, the Court argued that it had never followed it as a binding decision that compensation was due for injury or destruction of a riparian owner’s property located in the bed of a navigable stream.

Due to this decision, the government was able to build many of the dams of the New Deal. The TVA, designed by Senator George W. Norris, the Grand Coulee, and the Hoover Dam could not have been created across a navigable stream without fear of causing flooding prior to this decision.

Daily Briefing

• Amazon does not want to provide Alexa content to police in a murder investigation. As more of us buy devices that listen all of the time, this First Amendment and Fifth Amendment fight should be one to watch.
• Remember Picture Days? Brian and I recently had a picture taken for his church. No one gave us a comb. But I sure remember them.
• 41 detainees remain at Guantanamo. Still disgusting.
• 2018 will define the Democratic Party for the next generation. I hope they make the right decisions.
• This look at the demographics of Catholic church-goers is fascinating. I cannot say that I have gone regularly but I do agree that the Catholic Church has moved away from helping the poor. And their under representation at the Sunday masses may be a decent reason why.
• If Republicans want local control, why ban local communities from protecting LGBTQ rights? Oh that’s right. It has nothing to do with federalism, it is only bigotry.
• People still do not know how to save for retirement. Luckily, the world may end first!
• Trump breaks up the executive board at Renaissance Technologies LLC.
• Corporate America will save us from this hateful trans memo from the administration. If you cannot find a place in your heart for the oppressed, you need a new heart.
• Alaskan Republican says no to ending the Medicaid expansion. Paul Ryan will not like that.

Russia

• The White House tried to pressure the FBI to come out and “knock down” the Russia probes. But meeting Bill Clinton on a plane was horrible…
• And the Russians may have blackmailed Paul Manafort. This whole campaign cries incompetence and hatred.
• Putin and Trump. One wants to be the other and one thinks the other is incompetent. Guess which one is which?

The Arts

• Depeche Mode does not want to be the band of the alt-right.
• This stunning comparison of The Velvet Underground and Nico versus Sgt. Pepper’s reminds me how fundamental both of these albums are to my love of music. I found Sgt. Pepper in high school and would listen to a cassette tape I copied from the library. But The Velvet Underground became my go-to during college and law school. And most likely, a majority of the music I listen to now would resemble Lou Reed’s band and not John Lennon’s.
• I was not the biggest fan of The Artist, so I suppose this article stating that La La Land is more deserving works. The Artist was not deserving at all of Best Picture.
• I may need to search out this book by David Grossman.

Immigration and Refugees

• I am proud of Cardinal Cupich and his statements about refugees and immigration. Listen to Jesus’s stories about the stranger.
• An ICE detainee with a brain tumor was removed from a hospital. Listen to Cardinal Cupich. It’s unAmerican.
• When you lose good people because they do not feel welcome, that is not America. A National Security Council member quit because she was a Muslim.

Daily Distraction

Last night, the third episode of Legion furthered the story. Although David’s sister still remains with who we presume are the bad guys, a dividing line now exists. As the leaders of this mysterious mutant group begin to explore David’s mind further, he continues to freak out and not trust anything around him. But he has reason to. He was sent to an insane asylum, his best friend haunts him, and all of these people will not let him go help his sister.

And yet, his relationship with Syd continues to grow. She enters his dream mind with the others from this secret group. But she is the only one that can follow him once his mind begins to shut down. She follows him until she awakens and needs to save everyone else. Then in the end, David takes her to find his sister – again through an astral plane. But David cannot seem to wake up.

This series continues to look amazing and fill the imagination. Taking a relatively weird X-Men concept and turning it into a philosophical love story regarding the reality of dreams, the reality of the mind, and the reality of love, takes some master class of writing.

Give this show a chance if you have not yet.

One Sentence Story

I have to hope for an incredibly sunny day or this will not work.