Next to the presidential and senatorial races on the Virginia ballot this November will be another high-stakes choice: a proposed amendment to the state Constitution that claws back the power of eminent domain. The Virginia Property Rights Amendment, which Gov. Bob McDonnell, R, signed Monday, is part of a popular backlash against the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2005 Kelo v. City of New London ruling, which allowed property to be taken from one private owner and given to another for “economic development.”

Virginia officials abused eminent domain long before Kelo, using it as a negotiating tool to coerce reluctant landowners into selling at below-market prices. Kelo emboldened them. Last year, Alexandria officials used this tactic in attempting to bully the Old Dominion Boat Club into selling valuable land in the heart of Old Town for just $150,000. Arlington County publicly threatened to use eminent domain to coerce a Canadian company into selling a seven-story commercial building that the county wanted for a homeless services center.