House approves bill to restrict seizures of private land

WASHINGTON -- Contending that the Supreme Court has undermined a pillar of American society -- the sanctity of the home -- the House overwhelmingly approved a bill yesterday to block the court-approved seizure of private property for use by developers.

The bill, passed 376 to 38, would withhold federal money from state and local governments that use powers of eminent domain to force businesses and homeowners to give up their property for commercial uses.

The Supreme Court, in a 5-to-4 ruling in June, recognized the power of local governments to seize property needed for private development projects that generate tax revenue. The decision drew criticism from private property, civil rights, and farm groups that said it was an abuse of the Fifth Amendment's ''takings clause." That language provides for the taking of private property, with fair compensation, for public use.

The court's June decision, said House Judiciary Committee chairman James Sensenbrenner, a Republican from Wisconsin, changed established constitutional principles by holding that ''any property may now be taken for the benefit of another private party."

The ruling in Kelo v. City of New London allowed the Connecticut city to exercise state eminent domain law to require several homeowners to cede their property for commercial use.

The House bill, said Chip Mellor, president of the Institute for Justice, which represented the Kelo homeowners before the Supreme Court, ''highlights the fact that this nation's eminent domain and urban renewal laws need serious and substantial changes."

But opponents argued that the federal government should not be interceding in what should be a local issue. ''We should not change federal law every time members of Congress disagree with the judgment of a locality when it uses eminent domain for the purpose of economic development," said Representative Bobby Scott, a Democrat from Virginia.

The legislation is the latest, and most far-reaching, of several congressional responses to the court ruling. The House previously passed a measure to bar federal transportation money from going toward improvements on land seized for private development. The bill now moves to the Senate, where Senator John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, has introduced companion legislation.

About half the states are also considering changes in their laws to prevent takings for private use.