COLUMBIA -- The S.C. Supreme Court will hear arguments today from attorneys representing the Georgia Department of Transportation and Jasper County over whether the county had a right to condemn land to make way for a proposed deep-water shipping terminal.

The state's highest court, which meets this morning in Columbia, will decide whether Jasper County in 2000 was right to condemn 1,776 acres owned by Georgia's Transportation Department. The five-member court is expected to decide the case in 45 to 60 days.

The county has plans with Stevedoring Services of America, the nation's largest port builder, to construct a $450 million port on the site up the Savannah River from the Savannah Port. The Georgia agency says the Army Corps of Engineers needs the land to continue dumping tons of muck that gathers on the river's floor.

Jasper County Judge Perry Buckner rejected the suit in April 2002, ruling the project constitutes public use of the property. The Transportation Department appealed Buckner's ruling to the Supreme Court later that month.

If the court overrules the lower court's decision, the county's proposal for the deep-water shipping terminal would not die, but the county would be forced to make changes recommended by the court, Tom Johnson, one of the county's three attorneys, said Monday.

"If this hearing is successful, and we believe it will be, then we simply take title to the land, start the port, and the only thing left in the court system is the amount of money that we owed the Georgia DOT," Johnson said, adding that the project would move forward despite any money dispute.

"If we lose, then I think the worst that will happen is that we will lose all this time and legal expense and start over with whatever the court thinks is wrong."

The Georgia attorney general's office, which represents the Georgia Department of Transportation, declined to comment Tuesday.

"We may have some comment after the hearing," said Russell Willard, spokesman for the attorney general's office. "For right now, we're going to decline to comment because the matter is still pending before the court."

If the court rules in Jasper County's favor, the county would like to start construction immediately, Johnson said.

"But in real life the first phase of the project is the environmental permitting," he said. "And that will take a substantial amount of time, even without any organized opposition."

An environmental impact statement could take a year, Johnson said.

"The first phase of constructing the port will not be a bricks and mortar situation. It will be a pen and pencil situation," Johnson said.

After the state high court rules, the losing party could ask the U.S. Supreme Court to hear an appeal.

"Is (a port) a public use? We all agree that a public park would be a public use, a highway would be a public use, a schoolhouse would be a public use," said O'Neal Smalls, a law professor at the University of South Carolina. "That could be a federal issue that could get the case to the (U.S.) Supreme Court," Smalls said. "If it isn't taken for a public use, then it would be unconstitutional."