“We have to give Jeb a point for eminent domain answer- public vs private use.”
Even when it’s perceived as private use, the ultimate use is public. A big business brings in more taxes than a single-family home. Atlantic City wanted this as much as Trump did.
Eminent domain is used so private developers can build high-rise apartment complexes, malls, etc. More taxes in the coffers for the community is the goal. Jeb knows this as much as anyone; playing dumb tonight is convenient for him.
Keystone Pipeline is neither public nor private for the US. It’s a Canadian project, wanting to come through US soil. Trump has said before that it will take US eminent domain to make it possible, and that we shouldn’t let Canada pump their oil through for “free”, but US needs to get a precentage. Jeb and the others never get close to seeing it from that perspective.
That line of argument is where the Supreme Court got Kelo wrong.
Article V mentions "public use," not "public good." There is no doubt that a higher tax base from a mall is a greater public good than the smaller tax base from single family homes. South Florida tried the same thing after the Kelo decision by trying to condemn older 1970s style Florida homes along the Intracoastal Waterway to put in more revenue generating luxury yacht marinas.
However, "public use" is limited to exactly that: schools, roads, police stations, military bases, utilities, and such. It is not taking private property from one owner and giving it to another owner on the crapshoot that it will earn more revenue for the "public."
-PJ