The U.S. Supreme Court decided on March 24 not to hear a challenge to its controversial 20-year-old ruling upholding eminent domain powers to confiscate private property for private economic development.
The court denied the petition in Bowers Development LLC v. Oneida County Industrial Development Agency in an unsigned order without comment. No justices dissented.
The new case was brought by a development company whose land was expropriated by a local development agency and given to a business competitor that wanted to use the land for a parking lot.
Eminent domain is the power of governments to take—or expropriate—private property for public use provided that the owner is given just compensation….