Eminent domain

“ The right of eminent domain is usually understood to be the ultimate right of the sovereign power to appropriate, not only the public property, but the private property of all citizens within the territorial sovereignty, to public purposes. ”

“ Apprehension of land as common property The doctrine of eminent domain, which makes the sovereign theoretically the only absolute owner of land, springs from nothing but the recognition of the sovereign as the representative of the collective rights of the people. ”

“ Once the object is within the authority of Congress, the right to realize it through the exercise of eminent domain is clear. For the power of eminent domain is merely the means to the end. See Luxton v. ”

“ If it is necessary that the United States government should have an eminent domain still higher than that of the state in order that it may fully carry out the objects and purposes of the constitution, then it has it. ”

“ This right of eminent domain should be used not only for the benefit of the person wishing a home, but for the benefit of all the people. Nothing is more important to America than that the babes of America should be born around the firesides of homes.
There is another question in which I take great interest, and it ought, in my judgment, to be answered by the intelligence and kindness of our century. ”

“ The right of eminent domain is the right of civil government over all the territory and persons within the limits of a state, notwithstanding its grant of the property to individuals. It is a right paramount to, and unaffected by, the grant. ”

“ It is easy to see that under such legislation everybody holds his land not only subject to public need, but to the greed of any designing neighbor. Perhaps the most important question of eminent domain is or was whether it authorized general schemes of internal improvement made by the State or by a municipality, or, worse still, by a private corporation chartered for the purpose. ”

“ When the sovereign exercises the power of eminent domain it substitutes itself in relation to the physical thing in question in place of him who formerly bore the relation to that thing, which we denominate ownership. ”

“ The power of corporations to take private property upon the theory of public need by the exercise of the right of eminent domain ought to be permitted, after the ascertainment by the state itself of the existence of such need. ”

“ The high and extraordinary power of eminent domain may not exist without a special grant of power," Citing 2 Dillon Mun. Cor. (3rd Ed.) , Sections 574, 575.
In Cooley on Constitutional Limitations (7th Ed.) , page 753, Eminent Domain is defined as:
That superior right of property pertaining to the sovereignty by which the private property acquired by its citizens under its protection may be taken or its use controlled for the public benefit without regards to the wishes of its owners. ”

“ On the other hand, if there can be no right to restrain by contract the power of eminent domain, it must also of necessity follow that any contract by which it was sought to accomplish that result would be inefficacious for want of power. And these considerations bring us to weigh and decide the real and ultimate question; that is, the right to take the property by eminent domain, which embraces within itself, as the part is contained in the whole, any supposed right of contract limiting or restraining that authority. ”

“ The original idea of the eminent domain was the right of sovereignty, or residuum of power over the land which remained in the sovereign or lord paramount after the fee granted to the feudatory, and was therefore confined to the realty. In the progress of arts and commerce, when personal property became worthy of legal consideration, this power of sovereignty was extended over that, and even included debts. But this grant to the plaintiffs can fall within no such category of property. It is a franchise, a pure franchise. ”

“ A correct view of this matter must demonstrate, moreover, that the right of eminent domain in government in no wise interferes with the inviolability of contracts; that the most sanctimonious regard for the one is perfectly consistent with the possession and exercise of the other.
Under every established government, the tenure of property is derived mediately or immediately from the sovereign power of the political body, organized in such mode or exerted in such way as the community or State may have thought proper to ordain. It can rest on no other foundation, can have no other guarantee. ”

“ The law of eminent domain may be taken advantage of only by corporations which are engaged in serving the public. It is based upon the principle that the advancement and improvement of a community is of more importance and carries with it more rights than the interests of the individual owner. ”

“ Government—that is, society—chose to sell or give away the public domain in fee-simple, reserving the right of eminent domain. The moment land is reduced to private ownership, it becomes subject to taxation, and must bear its share of the burdens of society. ”

“ Individuals can confer only such rights as they have in the supposed state of nature. In that state there is neither private nor public domain. The earth in that state is not property, and is open to the first occupant, and the occupant can lay no claim to any more than he actually occupies. Whence, then, does government derive its territorial jurisdiction, and its right of eminent domain claimed by all national governments? ”

“ If that were all, it might be doubted whether the right of eminent domain was intended to be invoked. It is true, the words 'to purchase' might be construed as including the power to acquire by condemnation; for, technically, purchase includes all modes of acquisition other than that of descent. ”

“ Whenever the power of eminent domain is about to be exercised without compliance with the conditions upon which the authority for its exercise depends, courts of equity are not curious in analyzing the grounds upon which they rest their interposition. ”

“ When the United States accepted the cession of the territory, they took upon themselves the trust to hold the municipal eminent domain for the new states, and to invest them with it, to the same extent, in all respects, that it was held by the states ceding the territories.
The right which belongs to the society, or to the sovereign, of disposing, in case of necessity, and for the public safety, of all the wealth contained in the state, is called the eminent domain. ”

“ That the legislature may thus select any agency it sees fit for the exercise of eminent domain, and also that it may determine what purposes shall be deemed public, are propositions too deeply rooted in the jurisprudence of this country to admit now of doubt or discussion. ”

“ Upon no other ground than that the purpose is public can the exercise of the power of eminent domain in behalf of such corporations be supported. This view of the subject has been taken by the Supreme Court of Michigan. ”

“ The right of eminent domain should be exercised by the nation either directly after conquest, or through the States or Territories it may establish. By that right, in England and in most of our States, private property is taken for highways or railways. ”

“ The general principle of public law is, that any private property may be taken for public use, or may be destroyed, or private rights sacrificed, whenever the public good requires it. This eminent domain extends over all the acquisitions of the citizen, and even to his contracts and rights of action. ”

“ Your petitioners are deeply impressed that for any government to apply the law of eminent domain to the property of others than its own citizens, is to necessitate, if there be resistance, a war of conquest,—a measure wholly opposed to the fundamental principles of this government,—and that Indians, with few exceptions, are not citizens of the United States, but are under their own legislative and executive authority, as in the Indian Territory, and this by the terms of our sales of territory to them, and their titles to the same. ”

“ This is not because it is pleasant for the man, but because it is best for the community. Therefore his right to build or dig is limited by the right of eminent domain—the right of the whole people to take his property at any time for the common benefit on paying its value. ”

“ It is admitted by many, that the sovereign authority possesses a power, under the laws of eminent domain, to alienate the property of the subject, for the benefit of the Commonwealth, by impending public necessity against private injury. ”

“ The right of eminent domain is exercised to a greater extent than in England in the compulsory acquisition of sites for mills and the construction of levees or embankments, especially on the Mississippi. ”

“ The community's right of eminent domain has always been recognized in the need of public highways and other public improvements, and is likely to be still further recognized with any new necessity, like the control of injurious insects or quarantine against disease. Yet none of these restrictions diminish the necessity of ownership, in the sense of individual control for all purposes of agriculture, manufactures, commerce and social relations. ”

“ It can only come in to be compensated for public property, which the eminent domain clearly is. For the private property taken on either bank of the river, underlying the eminent domain, the new company has already paid. ”

“ This principle admits of no exception merely because the power of eminent domain is involved. The role of the judiciary in determining whether that power is being exercised for a public purpose is an extremely narrow one. ”

“ Indeed, many States already impose “public use” requirements that are stricter than the federal baseline. Some of these requirements have been established as a matter of state constitutional law, [6] while others are expressed in state eminent domain statutes that carefully limit the grounds upon which takings may be exercised. [7] As the submissions of the parties and their amici make clear, the necessity and wisdom of using eminent domain to promote economic development are certainly matters of legitimate public debate. ”