@ielenia@ck.catwithaclari.net From a US view: in theory, eminent domain is easy. In practice, it’s often a legal slog if the parties are unwilling, as the “Public Use” clause can get messy. The US government has the power to exercise Eminent Domain solely for the purpose of “Public Use”, though what constitutes public use the courts have restrained themselves from defining in favor of deferring to the legislature and it hsd come to mean “public agenda”. So it’s probably work, but it’d require a lot of legislative involvement (ie political capital) and potentially time.

This is also ignoring the Compensation Clause. The Constitution in the US demands that the government pay a “just compensation”. “Just” usually means “lucrative enough to forgo expensive and time-consuming legal arbitration for a better deal” because as you guessed it, it can be decided in court.

So what it boils down to: eminent domain could be time consuming, expensive, and cost political capital as many Americans don’t like the government throwing around eminent domain.