Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/19-1039_8n5a.pdf
Page Number: 12.0

Cite as:  594 U. S. ____ (2021) 

7 

Opinion of the Court 

States  nor  addresses  whether  §717f(h)  grants  that  right.
This  case  is  thus  unlike  Tacoma  v.  Taxpayers  of  Tacoma, 
357  U. S.  320  (1958),  in  which  we  held  that  the  Federal 
Power  Act’s  similarly  worded  exclusive-review  provision
barred a State from arguing that a licensee could not exer-
cise the rights granted to it by the license itself.  Contrary
to the United States’ argument, New Jersey’s appeal is not 
a collateral attack on the FERC order. 

III 
Turning to New Jersey’s sovereign immunity defense, we 
begin  by  discussing  the  federal  eminent  domain  power.
Since the founding, the Federal Government has exercised
its eminent domain authority through both its own officers 
and private delegatees.  And it has used that power to take 
property interests held by both individuals and States.  Sec-
tion 717f(h) is an unexceptional instance of this established 
practice. 

A 
Governments  have  long  taken  property  for  public  use
without the owner’s consent.  Although the term “eminent
domain” appears to have been coined by Grotius, see 2 De 
Jure Belli ac Pacis 807 (1646 ed., F. Kelsey transl. 1925), 
the history of the power may stretch back to biblical times, 
see Bell, Private Takings, 76 U. Chi. L. Rev. 517, 524–525 
(2009).  In England and the early Colonies, a host of stat-
utes authorized the use of eminent domain for the construc-
tion of roads, bridges, and river improvements, among other 
projects.  See Stoebuck, A General Theory of Eminent Do-
main, 47 Wash. L. Rev. 553, 561–562 (1972).  Those vested 
with the power could either initiate legal proceedings to se-
cure the right to build, or they could take property up front
and force the owner to seek recovery for any loss of value. 
See  1  Nichols  on  Eminent  Domain  §1.22[11–12]  (3d  ed. 
2021);  see  also  Knick  v.  Township  of  Scott,  588  U. S.  ___,