It's just political suicide to use eminent domain these days, but if the political climate changes, maybe it'll be used again. The power as written is pretty p

It's just political suicide to use eminent domain these days, but if the political climate changes, maybe it'll be used again. The power as written is pretty powerful and has only gotten more powerful and broad every time it's challenged in court. Since it's hard to argue that building a high speed rail isn't "public use", the only thing you'd be suing over would be the "just compensation" part. I believe in that case, the government can take and use first, and you can lawsuit afterwards over how much money you think it's worth which really doesn't stall anything. If the government can use eminent domain successfully take over land to give to private developers to build a mall, or even take it just to increase city revenues, it sure as hell can use it to build a train.