422
Opinion of the Court
agency's statutory interpretation, even when the statute is one authorizing condemnation of private property. In short, the principle advanced by B&M does not prevail over Chevron's rule of deference.
We also reject B&M's constitutional objections. B&M claims that § 562(d) as interpreted by the Commission violates the "public use" requirement of the Fifth Amendment's Takings Clause, because the transaction leaves unchanged the use made by Amtrak of the condemned track. B&M's position cannot be reconciled with our precedents. We have held that the public use requirement of the Takings Clause is coterminous with the regulatory power, and that the Court will not strike down a condemnation on the basis that it lacks a public use so long as the taking "is rationally related to a conceivable public purpose." Hawaii Housing Authority v. Midkiff, 467 U. S. 229, 240-241 (1984); see also Berman v. Parker, 348 U. S. 26, 32-34 (1954). In Midkiff we upheld land reform legislation which authorized condemnations for the specific purpose of transferring ownership to another private party, in order to eliminate a land oligopoly. In Berman we permitted land condemnations which contemplated reselling the land to redevelopers, as part of a plan to restore dilapidated sections of the District of Columbia. In both Midkiff and Berman, as in the present case, condemnation resulted in the transfer of ownership from one private party to another, with the basic use of the property by the government remaining unchanged. The Court held these exercises of the condemnation power to be constitutional, as long as the condemning authorities were rational in their positions that some public purpose was served. Those holdings control here, for there can be no serious argument that the ICC was irrational in determining that the condemnation will serve a public purpose by facilitating Amtrak's rail service. That suffices to satisfy the Constitution, and we need not make a specific factual determination whether the con-
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