In 2000, the city of New London, Connecticut, approved a development plan, anchored by a $300 million Pfizer research center, that was projected to create more than 1,000 jobs, to increase tax and other revenues, and to revitalize the economically distressed city, including its downtown and waterfront areas. The city designated the NLDC, a nonprofit development corporation, as its development agent to be in charge of the development and to purchase property in the ninety-acre area or to acquire it by eminent domain in the city’s name. The NLDC successfully negotiated the purchase of most of the property, but a few people refused to sell. Thereafter, the NLDC began condemnation proceedings. Several property owners brought an action in state court, claiming, among other things, that the taking of their properties would violate the Fifth Amendment provision that states that private property may only be taken for “public use” with just compensation. Is the taking of private land by a private developer as part of an economic development project a permitted “public use”? Should it be?