For generations going back to the days of chattel slavery, Blaine and Diane Smith, along with their children, have worked the same land their ancestors once tilled, fishing in the quiet streams and tending to the fields that have been in their family for ages.
Don and Sally Garrett, who live near the Smiths in Sparta, Georgia, dreamed of turning his family’s historic farmhouse into a relaxing bed and breakfast out in the country.
But now, their peace is being threatened by Sandersville Railroad, which seeks to use eminent domain to seize parts of their land to carve a path right through their property—not for a public project, but for a private rail line that will benefit a foreign-owned quarry.
And the state of Georgia might just let them do it.
This story starts back in April 2022, when the Smiths, Garretts, and other affected families first learned about the project.
What ensued is a legal battle that has continued to this day. "I went out and lived in this country, I’ve fought for this country, met people all over the world, got to be a good representative of our country, like for our rights, and then come back here, and then someone’s going to take our property so they can make a profit,” he told Townhall.
His wife, Diane, said, “We don’t want [the railroad] on our property invading our privacy and our quietness.”
Don Garrett, a retired business contractor, has a veteran son who suffers from PTSD living on the land. “That noise from that train, and loading those big rocks into those cars, close behind his house back there, I don’t know if he can stand that,” he said.
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Blaine Smith, a retired Air Force veteran whose father served with the Tuskegee Airmen, expressed frustration at how his family is being treated after he served the country.
The families are concerned about the noise, environmental disruption, and the destruction of their private life that the railroad would bring. The project would divide their land while restricting their movement on their property. Diane Smith expressed concerns about what could happen if a train derails on their land. “If they had a derailment... there’s no forestry department there... There’s no real infrastructure in Sparta to help if they do, by chance, have some type of derailment... Our house is a wood house,” she said.
Blaine explained that he would have to “travel through a 200-foot wide corridor of the track to get to the other side” and that his brother would be cut off from the rest of the property. “He’s going to have to cross the track. My other brother’s going to have to look at it right in his yard,” he said.
The case proceeded in March 2023 when Sandersville Railroad petitioned the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) for the authority to condemn the land and seize it through eminent domain. The company argued that the project would serve a public use and create jobs in Sparta.
Under Georgia law, eminent domain cannot be used to benefit a private corporation. It must be used only for projects that will provide a public use.
The PSC voted unanimously to approve the railroad’s request. However, the landowners, represented by the Institute for Justice (IJ) appealed the decision to the Fulton County Superior Court.
Judge Craig Schwall upheld the PSC’s ruling, but imposed a partial stay, barring Sandersville Railroad from starting construction while the case was being appealed. Now, the case is headed to the Georgia Supreme Court where the landowners hope to overturn the PSC’s ruling and set a precedent preventing private entities from leveraging eminent domain for their financial gain.
If the company is allowed to proceed with construction, it would build a 4.5-mile rail line connecting the Heidelberg Material quarry, a German-owned enterprise, to the CSX rail system. This would allow the company to charge freight fees for transporting rock, gravel, and other materials through the area. The quarry could become a major long-term customer.
The railroad claims the project would create 12 jobs, arguing that this constitutes public use. The company further asserts that it would provide an economic boost to Sparta.
After getting pushback on this argument, Sandersville pivoted, claiming that it would serve the public by providing “channels of trade,” according to attorney Bill Maurer with the Institute for Justice. It also claims the railroad would reduce truck traffic.
Maurer suggested that the company’s initial argument was a legal misstep and went with the “channels of trade” point as a semantic dodge.
"It wasn’t until, apparently, they realized that they were talking themselves out of being able to condemn this property, they changed the justification to a different justification, which is providing channels of trade,” Maurer told Townhall.
He further pointed out that the quarry and other businesses can already access interstate commerce through trucks. Sandersville wants the railroad because it would offer a cheaper alternative, which is not a new public necessity, the attorney argued. "All of these companies can trade their products. They can all get their products into interstate commerce or even intrastate commerce. They just want to do it for cheaper, and they want to do it at the expense of my clients,” he said.
Maurer dismissed the company’s argument about truck traffic, saying these “indirect benefits” do not justify using eminent domain to seize the families’ land.
This is not necessary to accommodate their business. This is an expansion of their business... I’m not sure how a railroad that is not economically feasible and that can’t operate without government approval that the railroad hasn’t gotten can be necessary to accommodate anything.
The Sandersville Railroad Company did not respond to a request for comment.
Each of the families involved is resolved to fight this project all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, if necessary. Diane emphasized that they are “concerned and we’re also educated” and that they would not be cowed into giving up the land their family has owned for over one hundred years.
Blaine concurred. "150 years from now, our kids are grandkids, their children, whoever is there at that time, get to look at a train go by... We’re not going to give this fight up. If they beat us, they’re going to beat us all the way to the Supreme Court," he said.
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