Colorado towns now have the power to condemn land outside city limits, all thanks to the state Supreme Court.

More on that in a moment on the Face The State Radio Minute.

A majority of Colorado’s seven-member Supreme Court recently found Colorado’s “home-rule” cities and towns may condemn land, even when it’s outside of city limits.

The beneficiary of the Court's ruling is the Town of Telluride, eager to condemn land for use as open space on the nearby "Valley Floor," a picturesque plot along the highway into town. The problem is, the land is not within town limits, and the town's authority over the land is therefore limited under a state eminent-domain law.

The justices found that law to be an unconstitutional limit on the town’s authority. But what of the property owner, who has no say in the matter and stands to lose his land?

For such a serious degradation of property rights to be pursued in the name of "open space" shows just how far the Court is willing to apply its flair for judicial activism.

For FaceTheState.com, I’m Brad Jones.