⚖ Oral Arguments, with Context

The Supreme Court considers who must pay a landowner's legal costs when a private pipeline company uses federal power to take property rights. W B I Energy Transmission went to federal court to obtain a right of way across North Dakota land for a natural-gas pipeline. After years of litigation, the company and landowners settled the value of that right of way, but left the owners' legal fees unresolved. A federal district judge awarded the owners those fees under North Dakota law; the Eighth Circuit set that award aside, applying the federal compensation standard instead. The landowners will argue that giving a private company power to take property does not erase state-law protections governing what owners are paid. The company, supported here by the federal government, will argue that it received the federal taking power together with the federal compensation rule, which ordinarily excludes legal fees. Listen for the difference between the constitutional minimum paid for property and the additional compensation state law may require, and for whether private companies should be treated like the government when they take land.

Hoffmann v. WBI Energy Transmission, Inc. (No. 25-159) — Supreme Court of the United States, argued November 9, 2026.