If the Federal Government wanted to make a new planned city, would they be able to use Eminent Domain?
If the Federal Government wanted to make a new planned city, would they be able to use Eminent Domain?
Not sure if that would count as "for ends of public utility". Anyone experienced in this field? This would take a city size amount of farmland for the downtown and most of the city (I think any small towns caught up in the boundaries would be incorporated into it).
This would be kicked off with federal offices, but not necessarily political capitol. There are a ton of federal jobs that really don't need to be located in a high cost of living area.
The term "eminent domain" was taken from the legal treatise De jure belli ac pacis (On the Law of War and Peace), written by the Dutch jurist Hugo Grotius in 1625,[5] which used the term dominium eminens (Latin for "supreme ownership") and described the power as follows:
The property of subjects is under the eminent domain of the state, so that the state or those who act for it may use and even alienate and destroy such property, not only in the case of extreme necessity, in which even private persons have a right over the property of others, but for ends of public utility, to which ends those who founded civil society must be supposed to have intended that private ends should give way. But, when this is done, the state is bound to make good the loss to those who lose their property.
Every state in the US reserves eminent domain. Meaning you don't truly own your land anyway. You just have a reserved right to that land which can be removed at anytime. However you are required to be compensated under the Fifth Amendment
This is basically how the city of Richland, Washington came into its present form. During the Manhattan Project the federal government took over the town and some adjacent villages, evicting about 300 people, and built it into a bedroom community that eventually housed about 25,000 people for the nearby Hanford site.
I'm not an expert, but I did just listen to a podcast on this (which basically makes me an expert, right?)
I think yes, technically, legally the federal government could. 'Kelo v. City Of New London' ruled that purely economic development was a sufficient justification for using the takings power (eminent domain). The reaction by most states was to make their own laws limiting eminent domain powers so that the Kelo situation couldn't happen with the state government, but the federal government has never passed laws limiting its powers. Bills to limit federal power like S.1313 were introduced but never passed.
Link to podcast?
Your purpose would be to allow a ton of federal jobs in a low col area? That would destroy the towns from where they move and create a new high col area.
Existing cities have lots of other businesses, they can survive without the fed jobs. And those lots of other businesses are what causes high COL. High population without room to grow.
Probably only if that city was a new planned capitol like the CBC has suggested be developed on the Republican River.
Oh I missed that I'm thinking this would be for federal offices. Not sure about political capital like congress just because, but we have a ton of federal workers that really don't need to be located in a high cost of living area.
See that could be pretty easily achieved without eminent domain.
If you announced the program you'd probably have cities bidding against each other to host this department or that.
You'd probably have to create whole new departments just to appease cities and states that ended up not getting offices that you want to keep political capital with.
Establishing a Department of Language Accomodation in Queens would probably be the safe bet to test this kind of shenaniganery with.
The Federal Government could make the city with eminent domain. The issue is that the Federal Government is going to have to figure out how to run the city after it gets built.
The Federal Government can only override a state government in municipal issues on federally owned land. So, it becomes awkward when the capital becomes a city and you start getting a patchwork of public and private lands. There is a reason why DC is its own entity and its government serves the Federal Government.
So while the USA could create a new capital with existing powers, it will probably need a constitutional amendment to handle the creation of a new federal city independent of the states.
Eh I don't share that concern. DC was created at the height of paranoia and that each state was it's own country mentality. You have that "patchwork" for plenty of offices already both federal and state jobs. Eg the Pentagon is not in DC. Second I'm thinking offices for the boring jobs like bureau of weights and measures, not the political capitol.
Assuming you're talking about the US. Legally, maybe. Politically, no.