Eminent domain Is the right of the people or government to take private property for public use. Code Civ. Proc. Cal. 8 1237; Cherokee Nation v. Southern Kan. R. Co. (D. C.) 33 Fed. 905; Comm. v. Alger, 7 Cash. (Mass.) 85; American Print works v. Lawrence, 21 N. J. Law, 257; Twelfth St Market Co. v. Philadelphia & R. T. R. Co., 142 Pa. 580, 21 AU. 989; Todd v. Austin, 34 Conn. 88; Kohl v. U. S., 91 U. S. 371, 23 L. Ed. 449