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“What’s planned for 3 is that it’s going to be office space,” Horton said. “And the expectation is that it will attract the sorts of offices that will feed on Pfizer. They spent $300 million on the site here … Parcel 4-A is for park support or marina support.”

Horton finished by talking about compensation, pointing out that the city had tried to compensate the homeowners.

“What this lady wants is not more money,” Scalia interjected. “No amount of money is going to satisfy her. She is living in the house … and she does not want to move … It seems to me that’s an objection in principle, and an objection in principle that the public-use requirement of the Constitution seems to be addressed to.”

Horton countered that the public doesn’t need to actually use the property in order to satisfy the public-use requirement.

“I’m not proposing that the state has to use the property itself,” Scalia said. “I’m simply proposing that its use not be a private use which has incidental benefits to the state. That is not enough to justify use of the condemnation power.”

Horton tried to cut in.

Scalia kept going. “It’s quite different to say you can give it to a private individual simply because that private individual is going to hire more people and pay more taxes. That, it seems to me, just washes out entirely the distinction between private use and public use,” he said.

“Well, I don’t agree, Your Honor,” Horton said, hoping to sum up. “So it seems to me the four words I think that this Court should consider—”

Suddenly, his red light came on, signaling his time was up. “And I’m not going to tell you the four words since my red light is on. Thank you, Your Honor.”

His ending drew muffled laughter from the gallery.

Justice O’Connor invited Bullock to make a three-and-a-half-minute rebuttal. Before he could start, Justice Kennedy stopped him. “Mr. Bullock, do you know those four words?” he asked.

The courtroom and the justices laughed loudly.

“I wish I did,” Bullock said, smiling.

Horton smiled at Kennedy.

When things quieted down, Bullock wrapped up by harking back to Horton’s earlier concession: “I think the key to understanding their argument is the answer to the question, ‘Can you take a Motel 6 and give it to a fancier hotel?’ Their answer is yes. And that’s what’s really at stake here.”

The smile on Londregan’s face quickly evaporated.

“These condemnations are taking place throughout the country,” Bullock continued. “A city in California condemns the 99 cents store in order to give it to Costco … They did so because they wanted to get the tax revenue, and that’s the problem with these types of condemnations … The one thing that all poor neighborhoods share in common is that they don’t produce much in the way of tax revenue. So you’re going to put poor neighborhoods and working-class neighborhoods like the ones that exist in Fort Trumbull in jeopardy if the Court affirms the lower court’s decision.”

At 11:12, the argument closed. Londregan was still fuming over O’Connor’s Motel 6 question. “O’Connor was just wrong,” he said. “She did not read the municipal-development plan. It cost us $25,000 for us to print it and present it to the Court. And by that question, it was clear she did not read it. You could not ask that question knowing that we did $18 million in remedial cleanup of an industrial zone, put in a river walk, put in a public park, and upgraded the roads and sewers. These are all public benefits!”

Horton remained convinced he had given the right answer in simply saying yes.

“I’ll tell you what I would have said,” Londregan said. “‘Your Honor, I hope you don’t think that’s what we’re doing in New London. Please read the municipal-development plan, if for no other reason than the fact that it cost us $25,000 to print the damn thing.’”

As soon as the argument ended, Susette led LeBlanc toward the exit. When she emerged from the building, she bumped into Bullock and Kramer on the top step. A sea of reporters and cameras were camped behind a barricade at the bottom of the steps.