is the power of the government to take private property for public use for just compensation under the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. This is one of the four powers of government which institutes public limitations on real property. The four powers are: Police power, Eminent domain, Taxation, and Escheat, remembered by the acronym PETE.  

A recent decision in Kelo v. City of New London, 545 U.S. 469 (2005) has challenged the historical understanding. In Kelo, the Supreme Court of the United States permitted the city of New London, Connecticut to use eminent domain to transfer land from one private owner to another private owner to further economic development. The Court held in a 5-4 decision that the general benefits a community enjoyed from economic growth qualified such redevelopment plans as a permissible "public use" under the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment.