Supreme Court OK's Housing Confiscation For Private Development

The supreme court has just extended 5th amendment's eminent domain principle to include private development projects. I can understand confiscating people's homes to build a highway or something else that is clearly for public use, but confiscating homes just to give them to someone else on the theory that it will indirectly spur the economy sounds like something out of a communist dictatorship, or like the laws justifying Israeli settlement projects on palestinian lands. According to the article, this ruling could effect as many as 10000 homes.

In justice O'Connor's dissent she said the ruling would give "disproportionate influence and power" to those with political influence. Thomas and Scalia took similar positions, making the ruling look like the brainchild of liberalism. If it is, then this is one of those cases where I think liberalism has just got it wrong... Does anyone in this blog actually agree with this ruling?

Update: The New York Times supports the ruling in this editorial. Note, though, that they were beneficiaries of eminent domain recently.