Essay Sample on Eminent Domain

Eminent domain is the legal way the government seizes people's private property. Eminent domain is the government's right under the Fifth Amendment to acquire privately owned property for public use like building roads, schools, fire stations, etc. Under eminent domain, the government has greater legal authority compared to private property owners. While it is the right of the government to buy private property under eminent domain, this often only benefits the agenda of the government often leaving others in despair with more damage than improvement.  

Being promised jobs and many benefits for development on private property owner's land is a shoo-in for the support of its residents especially when the land is being bought at fair market value. Until, “failing to deliver the rebirth, community benefits and jobs they promise----but succeeding in delivering profits to the companies that lobby for them” (Source B). This circumstance of the government getting involved benefitted them and their agenda yet left many others in despair with more damage than improvement.

With eminent domain, the idea of new and refurbished infrastructure sounds nice for everyone until it’s proven time and time again to negatively affect several million people in the U.S. “His point is backed by much painful historical experience. Since the 1940s, “blight,” urban renewal, and economic development takings have forcibly displaced several million people in the United States, most of them poor and racial minorities” (Source C). This is another example of the government looking out for its own agenda that led to others being left in despair with more damage than improvement. 

Besides eminent domain often being used for the agenda of the government and leaving others in despair with more damage than improvement, it hasn’t always fallen short. “After undergoing a complete makeover that replaced decaying housing and junk-strewn lots with 80 affordable new homes and ten rehabilitated residences; neighborhood street, water, and sewer infrastructure were also upgraded (Source D). This case shows how eminent domain changed a community and positively;y benefitted its residents as well as the government; what eminent domain was intended to do.