The Trump administration is supporting a pipeline company over ranchers in a Supreme Court dispute about how much money the company should pay landowners for property it condemned for a gas project.
The move comes as the administration pushes to make it easier to build gas pipelines across the country, teeing up more disputes with landowners as to how much companies should pay when they use eminent domain to take property from unwilling sellers. The Trump administration is also divided over policies affecting ranchers, who had been a key constituency in the president’s re-election.
The high court is still weighing whether to take the case, which centers on whether state or federal law should apply when determining “just compensation” after land is seized by eminent domain. WBI Energy Transmission says it should be federal law, under which it would not have to pay attorney fees for the rancher’s successful effort to get a higher value set for their land.
In a brief filed late Friday, President Donald Trump’s solicitor general, D. John Sauer, backed that argument, saying the constitutional requirement for “just compensation” doesn’t include attorney fees.
