Eminent Domain

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United States Supreme Court

Case Name: Penneast Pipeline Company, LLC, v. New Jersey, et al.,

Case No.: 19-1039

Focus: Eminent Domain

Eminent domain is the power of the government to take property for public use without the consent of the owner. It can be exercised either by public officials or by private parties to whom the power has been delegated. And it can be exercised either through the initiation of legal proceedings or simply by taking possession up front, with compensation to follow. Since the founding, the United States has used its eminent domain authority to build a variety of infrastructure projects. It has done so on its own and through private delegatees, and it has relied on legal proceedings and upfront takings. It has also used its power against both private property and property owned by the States.

This case involves one of the ways the federal eminent domain power can be exercised: through legal proceedings initiated by private delegatees against state-owned property. Specifically, we are asked to decide whether the Federal Government can constitutionally confer on pipeline companies the authority to condemn necessary rights-of way in which a State has an interest. We hold that it can. Although nonconsenting States are generally immune from suit, they surrendered their immunity from the exercise of the federal eminent domain power when they ratified the Constitution. That power carries with it the ability to condemn property in court. Because the Natural Gas Act delegates the federal eminent domain power to private parties, those parties can initiate condemnation proceedings, including against state-owned property.

Reversed and remanded

Dissenting: GORSUCH, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which THOMAS, J., joined. BARRETT, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which THOMAS, KAGAN, and GORSUCH, JJ., joined.

Concurring:

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Derek A Hawkins is Corporate Counsel, at Salesforce.