The first arguments were heard in court yesterday for a lawsuit a group of 12 plaintiffs is bringing against Forest City Ratner, the ESDC and former Gov. Pataki. The suit charges that the impending use of eminent domain to remove them from their properties to make way for the massive Atlantic Yards development is unconstitutional. The defendants are seeking to have the suit dismissed. Mayor Bloomberg, who was not in court, defended the use of eminent domain yesterday. “In terms of development, you can’t let one little person that — one person that owns one little piece of property — stop big developments, because otherwise we wouldn’t have the housing that we need, we wouldn’t have the schools that we need, we wouldn’t have the infrastructure that we need,” he said. more [AMNY]