The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution explicitly established private property rights, “…nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.” When a government agency seizes private land for public use, it exercises its eminent domain powers by condemning land while providing its previous owners with fair market value (Garner et al., 2004). For many years following the United States’ founding, such eminent domain powers’ utilization was most commonly justified as necessary for extensive public works projects such as the construction of new roads,...Read more
