## Facts

- PennEast Pipeline Co., LLC obtained a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) certificate of public convenience and necessity to build an interstate natural gas pipeline from Pennsylvania to New Jersey.
- The Natural Gas Act authorizes a FERC certificate holder that cannot acquire necessary rights-of-way by contract to obtain them through eminent domain in federal district court.
- PennEast filed numerous federal condemnation actions in the District of New Jersey to acquire easements, including parcels in which New Jersey and state-related entities claimed property interests.
- New Jersey moved to dismiss the actions involving state interests, asserting Eleventh Amendment sovereign immunity against private suits.
- The district court denied New Jersey’s immunity motion and granted condemnation-related relief, including immediate access orders.
- The Third Circuit vacated the relief as to New Jersey’s property interests, holding the statute did not clearly authorize private certificate holders to sue nonconsenting States.
- The Supreme Court granted review to determine whether the federal eminent-domain power may be exercised by a private delegatee against state-owned interests.

## Issues

1. Whether the Natural Gas Act authorizes a FERC certificate holder to condemn rights-of-way in which a State holds an interest.
2. Whether state sovereign immunity bars condemnation actions brought in federal court by private entities exercising delegated federal eminent-domain power.
3. Whether the Constitution’s “plan of the Convention” includes a surrender by States of immunity from federal eminent-domain proceedings, even when initiated by a private delegatee.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court reversed and remanded in a 5–4 decision.
- The Court held that the Natural Gas Act authorizes FERC certificate holders to condemn necessary rights-of-way, including state-owned interests.
- The Court held that States surrendered immunity from the exercise of the federal eminent-domain power when they ratified the Constitution, and that this surrender applies when the power is exercised through a private delegatee.
- The Court rejected the view that Congress must include an unmistakably clear statement authorizing private suits against States in this context, treating the case as one of surrendered immunity rather than statutory abrogation.

## Legal Principles

- The federal eminent-domain power includes the ability to condemn property through judicial proceedings and may be exercised against state-owned property for authorized federal purposes.
- Congress may delegate the federal eminent-domain power to private entities, including infrastructure developers, to acquire necessary property interests for federally approved projects.
- Under the constitutional structure, States lack sovereign immunity from condemnation proceedings that implement the federal eminent-domain power; that lack of immunity extends to suits initiated by authorized private delegatees.
- Section 717f(h) of the Natural Gas Act authorizes certificate holders to pursue eminent-domain actions in federal court to obtain necessary rights-of-way without a textual limitation excluding state-owned interests.

## Conclusion

The Court held that the Natural Gas Act delegates federal eminent domain to FERC certificate holders and permits them to bring federal condemnation actions against state-owned property interests, because States surrendered immunity from the federal eminent-domain power upon ratification of the Constitution.


PennEast Pipeline Co., LLC v. New Jersey, 594 U.S. 482 (2021)