In Re Housing Authority of City of Salisbury , 235 N.C. 463 ( 1952 )

Ebvin, J".,

concurring: I concur in the result. If I had my way, I would reach the same result more directly by striking down as unconstitutional the statute giving housing authorities the power of eminent domain. Under this statute, a housing authority condemns the property of one person to provide dwellings for others. No amount of sophistry can erase the plain fact that this is taking the private property of one person without his consent, and devoting it to the private uses of others. This being true, the statute conferring the power of eminent domain upon housing authorities cannot be reconciled with the declarations of the State Constitution that all men are endowed by their Creator with an unalienable right to “the enjoyment of the fruits of their own labor,” and that “no person ought to be . . . deprived of his . . . property, but by the law of the land.” N. C. Const., Art. I, Section 1, 17. Courts should not sustain legislative acts which sacrifice the constitutional rights of the individual to what is called social progress.