Eminent Domain Essay

Eminent domain, also referred to as condemnation, or expropriation is the government’s ability to seize private property for “public use” while paying the landowner a fair price. As innocent or necessary as the concept may have been in its beginning, today it is a power play that is being abused, and has potential to negatively affect the environment. The original intent of eminent domain was for the betterment of society as a whole. Over time political officials have used the courts to corrupt this law from the benefit of society, to the betterment of a few. Needless to say there needs to be changes made to this law to protect the environment and landowners from the exploitation of this law. The original intent of eminent domain was a powerful way for the government to
The Supreme Court’s ruling did not favor the land owners as the Boston Globe (2) states “The court’s 5-4 holding in Kelo v. City of New London gave local officials a green light to seize and demolish private homes through eminent domain, then turn the land over to developers itching to build something more lucrative.” It is a slippery slope when you remove the land owner’s ability to maintain private property just because it has the potential to gain economic profit. More recent is the Dakota access pipeline, an oil pipeline that calls into question the “public use”. As motherjones states (3) “The pipeline will cross through sacred lands and pass under the Missouri River twice. For the Standing Rock Sioux, the Missouri provides drinking water and irrigation, while its riverbanks grow innumerable plants of cultural important, including sage and buffalo berries.” Now more than ever the potential abuse of eminent domain brings up important questions about the sustainability of the environment and what people are willing to risk for