Eminent Domain Case Going to Supremes

This was in the local paper. I've heard about this a couple of times in the MSM.

The case I think should be obvious, but there are other places that have shown no respect for private property, NYC being one of the greatest violators. The problem is that the town of New London is attempting to seize the property of several private owners in order to hand it over to another private party.

The fifth amendment isn't the clearest on this. This article quotes the Constitution related to eminent domain and also speaks to the fourteenth amendment's relevance to the topic. The crux of the whole thing though is that the statement of the fifth is still that the use is for the "public" benefit.

'The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution says 'nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.'

And this:

Explicit in the just compensation clause is the requirement that the taking of private property be for a public use; the Court has long accepted the principle that one is deprived of his property in violation of this guarantee if a State takes the property for any reason other than a public use.

This leads one to believe that it would be very difficult to defend the city of New London's act. Especially with this portion of the news report:

Dery is upset that the city wants to take his property before putting a developer under contract and deciding exactly what will replace his neighborhood.

“What they’re saying,” Dery said, “is that anything that we put there will be better than you.”

I read this as they haven't decided who they are going to give the right to profit from taking the property away from these private citizens. I wonder if handing private property over to a third party which will result in profit, which is not going to the public, has any relevance. Not to mention the seizure of the property when they don't know what they will do to "improve" the area.

I'm looking forward to the results. Even more so what the possible arguments are that could possibly defend this action.

UPDATE: Here is a blog by Crooked Timber that also discusses this.