NEW YORK, NY June 30, 2009 —The state's highest court has announced it will hear arguments on the use of eminent domain at Atlantic Yards in October. The Court of Appeals says it'll review a lower court decision made last month that permitted developer Bruce Ratner to move forward with the public-private project. WNYC's Matthew Schuerman reports.

REPORTER: Plaintiffs say that by agreeing to hear the case, the court has already decided there's a constitutional issue worth settling. They also contend that the appeal will put Ratner dangerously close to a December 31st IRS deadline for issuing tax-exempt bonds.

If it takes longer than that to sort out legal questions, Ratner would have to resort to conventional bonds, which would cost hundreds of millions of dollars more in interest payments.Last year, the court of appeals did decide all of its October cases by December 2nd, however.

If that schedule holds this year, and Ratner wins the appeal, a late December groundbreaking for the basketball arena is still possible. For WNYC I'm Matthew Schuerman.