Supreme Domain

CONCORD, N.H. -- Angered by a Supreme Court ruling last year that gave local governments more power to seize people's homes for economic development, activists are trying to get one of the court's justices evicted from his own home.

A group led by a California man wants Justice David Souter's home seized to build an inn called the "Lost Liberty Hotel."

The activists submitted enough petition signatures--only 25 were needed--to bring the matter before voters in March, and this weekend they came to Souter's hometown, Weare, N.H., to rally support.

"This is in the tradition of the Boston Tea Party and the Pine Tree Riot," organizer Logan Darrow Clements said, referring to a riot in the winter of 1771-72, when colonists in Weare beat up officials appointed by King George III who fined them for logging white pines without approval.

"All we're trying to do is put an end to eminent domain abuse," Clements said, by having those who advocate or facilitate it "live under it, so they understand why it needs to end."

Bill Quigley, deputy police chief of Weare, population 8,500, said any protesters would be told to stay across the street from a dirt road that leads to Souter's farmhouse.

"They're obviously not going to be allowed on Justice Souter's property," he said.

Clements of Los Angeles said he has never tried to contact Souter, who was in the majority in the 5-4 decision, Kelo vs. City of New London.

"The justice doesn't have any comment" on the protesters' cause, said Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg.

The petition asks whether the town should take Souter's land for development as an inn, whether to set up a trust fund to accept donations for legal expenses, and whether to set up a second trust fund to accept donations to compensate Souter for his land. The matter goes to voters on March 14.