CONSTITUTIONAL LAW-EMINENT DOMAIN-MICHIGAN CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISION

Authors

Abstract

The necessity for the exercise of the power of eminent domain in a given case is a legislative question into which the courts cannot inquire, unless an abuse of legislative power is asserted. This results from the very nature of the power to take property for a public use, which power in itself is inherent in sovereignty. When the legislature determines to take a piece of property it is exercising the power in the normal manner. If the use is public, no further determination is necessary once the legislative decision is made. The real reason for the rule would seem to be that the courts have no power to revise any enactment of the legislature unless it violates some clause of the constitution. And the constitutions of mo.st of the states contain no provision prohibiting the taking of public land for public use when no necessity is judicially demonstrated, nor does the federal constitution contain any such restriction. If there were such provisions in our state constitutions, the question of whether a given piece of land was needed, or whether a given contemplated public work was expedient would be a judicial question. But most of the constitutions authorize the legislature to take for a public use with no limitation or restriction as to necessity.

Recommended Citation

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW-EMINENT DOMAIN-MICHIGAN CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISION, 26 Mich. L. Rev. 194 (1927).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol26/iss2/6