Eminent Domain 3rd Amendment

The concept of private property and the owner’s rights when concerning that property first arises in the 3rd amendment. The 3rd amendment places strict restrictions on quartering soldiers without the owner’s consent, and forbids the practice during times of peace. This amendment was in response to Britain’s Quartering Acts, passed during the Revolutionary War, which allowed British soldiers to be housed in private housing during the war. The 3rd amendment was drafted by James Madison, who continued to protect property rights in his writings that were intended to defend the constitution. In Federalist Paper No. 48, Madison writes that government is intended to protect property of every right, that a just government would impartially secure every person what is their own. Eminent domain is the right of a government or its agent to expropriate private property for public use, with the payment of just compensation. The issue of eminent domain is first discussed in the 5th amendment of the constitution.

The Takings Clause states that no private property will “be taken for public use, without just compensation”. The issue of eminent domain is more an issue of whether or not the government can take property, it’s an issue of how and why the government is taking the property. For example, in Clark v. Nash (1905) Utah passed a statute granting the right to condemn land for the purpose of conveying water in ditches across that land for irrigation. The courts upheld this broad definition of “public use” and allowed Utah to condemn property for an irrigation ditch. The issue of just compensation is seen in Home v Department of Agriculture (2015). In this case, the courts upheld the government’s decision to seize 47% of raisin farmer’s crops to stabilize the market, with the condition that the government pay the farmer’s fair value on what they would have earned selling the raisins