Today we have more updates on items covered here before. Eminent domain backfires, the Patriot Act not being used to stop terrorism, and the hazards of national security letters.

• The New York Times is reporting today that the city of New London and state of Connecticut have halted plans to move forward with the New London Development Corporation’s planned waterfront development, which was the subject of the much derided Kelo v. New London eminent domain case. In this case, the Supreme Court mistakenly ruled that eminent domain could be used for private economic development, setting off a nationwide backlash.
• Those “sneak and peek” searches in the USA PATRIOT Act, where the government can conduct a search without telling you about it until later — sometimes much later — aren’t being used for terrorist investigations. In fact, they aren’t being used much at all, according to a New York Sun investigation.
• Responding to the news of the FBI using national security letters to spy on innocent Americans, security expert Bruce Schneier has a must-read essay on why surveillance of innocent people is such a bad thing for our society. “This isn’t about our ability to combat terrorism; it’s about police power. . . . unfettered police power quickly resembles a police state, and checks on that power make us all safer,” he writes. And one victim of national security letters tells his story.