COLUMBIA -- The biggest obstacle for attorneys on both sides of a S.C. Supreme Court case that has blocked a proposed Jasper County port was showing the court how Jasper County's condemnation of land applies to a similar case in Charleston, a Supreme Court justice told the attorneys Wednesday.

In the 1978 precedent, Karesh v. City Council of Charleston, the high court ruled against the city, which had condemned land for private development.

Jasper County's decision to condemn 1,776 acres owned by the Georgia Department of Transportation to use the land for "a public use" -- a proposed $350 million port -- has striking similarities to the 1978 case.

"As I see it, your biggest hurdle is to get around the Karesh case," Supreme Court Justice James E. Moore told attorneys at the Columbia hearing.

In the Karesh case, Charleston was forced to restructure its financing to accord with the Supreme Court's ruling before the project could move forward. The city now owns the parking garage that includes a hotel and conference center.

If the high court takes similar action in this case Jasper County would consider holding a referendum to make the port a public project, Jasper County attorney Tom Johnson said after Wednesday's hearing.

Stevedoring Services of America has a 99-year lease at $1 a year with Jasper County for the condemned land, with plans to build the deep-water shipping terminal on the Savannah River. The project has been stalled during more than two years of legal wrangling between the county and the Georgia agency.

Rick Bybee of Mt. Pleasant, the lead attorney representing the Georgia Transportation Department, acknowledged to the court that using condemned land for a public use is protected in the U.S. Constitution, but said using condemned land for a private venture is not. Under the current proposal, Jasper County would have no say over the land's use, Bybee said.

"When you focus on the use of condemnation power, you have to go back to Karesh, and you have to look at what control Jasper County will have over this port," Bybee said.

Chief Justice Jean Hoefer Toal questioned Bybee's argument.

"If you're correct," she said during the hearing, "no state entity would ever be able to subcontract or privatize any of its functions."

"The problem here is it doesn't meet the Karesh test. It doesn't show that Jasper County will have any say over the terminal's operation," Bybee argued. "The business's plans can change."

The Charleston City Council lost the 1978 case but was able to go forward with the project after following the court's recommendations.

"The City of Charleston fixed the problem by making it a public garage," Bybee said. "They operate it, they set the rates, they collect the tolls."

County attorney Johnson contended after the hearing that the port would be monitored.

"This is a regulated industry, like a railroad or a power plant, so the government has enforceable rights," Johnson said.

"The court says the purpose of the use, not who owns it, not who operates it, determines public use," said Gedney Howe, one of the county's three attorneys.

Jasper County's attorneys also argued that the economic impact of the shipping terminal would propel a historically poor county with an economic boon that County Administrator Henry Moss said would reach $1 billion in the first years alone.

Playing on that theme, Howe asked the justices to picture themselves standing atop the Eugene Talmadge Bridge, which links South Carolina and Georgia across the Savannah River.

"As far as you can see, the Georgia side of the Savannah River is alive and well," he said. "To your left is South Carolina, and you can see all the way to the horizon -- because there's nothing there."

The Georgia Department of Transportation owns 11,000 acres in South Carolina, mostly in Jasper County, and "they bought it to keep us from developing it," Howe said.

Jasper County has been looking for someone or something to come along with the same ambition as the late Charles Fraser, whose vision and investment shaped modern Hilton Head Island, the county's attorneys said.

"We need a Charles Fraser to break us out of the cycle," said Howe.

Howe said 40 percent of Jasper County residents leave the county for work, many going to nearby Savannah.

"In Jasper County, they do the most menial jobs that they're lucky to have," he said. "The last county I can think of that was in this condition was Beaufort County in the 1960s."

Justice Toel said she empathized with the county attorneys' arguments.

"I yearn as you do to see Jasper County make this progress and have this kind of access to jobs," Toel said.

But, she noted, the question before the court is whether "considerable economic need" is a justification for condemning the land.