In April 2004, DM&E was awarded the power of eminent domain in South Dakota by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in Pierre, South Dakota. The ruling overturned part of South Dakota legislation passed in 1999 (two years after the railroad first announced its intentions to expand) that would have impaired railroad operations and construction in the state. This decision restores the legal process by which the railroad can effectively force landowners along the proposed new route to sell their land to the railroad.