Louisiana's Constitution allows companies to condemn private land needed for a public purpose, but the Bayou Bridge pipeline violated landowners' due process when it built 90% of the $750-million project on a 38-acre parcel before gaining proper approval to enter the property, a state appeals court ruled July 15.
But pipeline owners Phillips 66 and Energy Transfer Partners, which also is the owner of the controversial Dakota Access pipeline, “consciously ordered construction to begin” before getting a determination the project was public and necessary, Judge Jonathan Perry said, which "not only trampled defendants’ due process rights as landowners, it eviscerated their constitutional protections.”