In New York, a grand jury can indict a ham sandwich and a municipality can take private property using eminent domain. Indeed, there is little judicial oversight in eminent domain proceedings and courts grant great deference to condemnors' justifications for using eminent domain.

As Judge James Catterson concurred in Uptown Holdings, LLC v. City of New York, "Unfortunately for the rights of the citizens affected by the proposed condemnation, the recent rulings of the Court of Appeals in Matter of Goldstein v. New York State Urban Dev. Corp., 13 N.Y.3d 511 [] (2009) and Matter of Kaur v. New York State Urban Dev. Corp., 15 N.Y.3d 235 [] (2010), have made plain that there is no longer any judicial oversight of eminent domain proceedings." 77 A.D.3d 434, 437 (1st Dept. 2010).

And as Judge Robert Smith noted in his Goldstein v. New York State Urban Development Corporation dissent, municipalities are judges over their own causes in determining when the public use requirement is satisfied. 13 N.Y.3d 511, 552 (2009) ("To let the agency itself determine when the public use requirement is satisfied is to make the agency a judge in its own cause.").