But her lawyer, Henry E. Howell III, acknowledged that he had not argued the constitutional grounds for the bar in the lower court and in the initial appeal to bring it properly before the Supreme Court. He promised to do so in future cases pending in state courts.

Still, Howell contends that state law reserves to public service companies regulated by the State Corporation Commission the right to survey without landowner consent, based on the section of code in which the General Assembly placed it.

He also argued that the law violates the fundamental right voters enshrined in the state constitution in 2012 to protect against any law that would take private property unless for public use.

“What do all of these people get out of the pipeline coming onto their property?” Howell asked after the hearing. “The pipeline’s not benefiting the community.”

But the Atlantic Coast Pipeline company, licensed in Delaware and led by Richmond-based Dominion, said the project serves a vital public interest that the General Assembly sought to promote by ensuring that interstate companies have the same right as state public service companies to survey private property for the least harmful route.