to seize land according to the Condemnation Act and Public Buildings Act. Burton asserted that the Court, far removed from the date of enactment of these laws, must be slow to read into them any limitation on public officials not expressly provided for by the acts. The majority also held as settled the concept (enunciated in Kohl v. United States, 91 U.S. 367 (1875)) that the federal government need not seek to enforce its eminent domain rights solely in state courts. It made little difference whether the federal government sought to condemn private or public land, Burton concluded. Nor did it matter that the land was held by the state in trust, for the federal government had notified all title holders of its decision to condemn the land. Burton reviewed the constitutional grants of power which gave the United States the power of eminent domain and concluded that this power was supreme: The considerations that made it appropriate for the Constitution to declare that the Constitution of the United States, and the laws of the United States made in pursuance thereof, shall be the supreme law of the land make it appropriate to recognize that the power of eminent domain, when exercised by Congress within its constitutional powers, be equally supreme. Unwilling to read into the Condemnation Act or the Public Buildings Act limitations which were not there, Burton analyzed the process by which federal officials had chosen the site in question, and concluded that it represented a rational and reasonable exercise of the government's powers. Concurrence Associate Justice William O. Douglas concurred in the result and the opinion of the Court, but reserved judgment "as to the circumstances under which authority to condemn land owned by a city or a state should be inferred from a general condemnation statute if the local government challenged the taking." See also List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 329 References External links 1946 in United States case law United States Supreme Court cases United States Supreme Court cases of the Vinson Court Takings Clause case law