Page:United States Reports, Volume 545.djvu/530



Opinion of the Court. But although such a projected use would be sufﬁcient to satisfy the public use requirement, this “Court long ago rejected any literal requirement that condemned property be put into use for the general public.” Id.,. Indeed, while many state courts in the mid-19th century endorsed “use by the public” as the proper deﬁnition of public use, that narrow view steadily eroded over time. Not only was the “use by the public” test difﬁcult to administer (e. g., what proportion of the public need have access to the property? at what price?), but it proved to be impractical given the diverse and always evolving needs of society. Accordingly,