WASHINGTON  Supreme Court nominees almost never comment on recent decisions from the court they hope to join. But both Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. broke with protocol and perhaps prudence at their confirmation hearings when it came to a decision that had been issued just months before, Kelo v. City of New London.

Without quite saying Kelo had been incorrectly decided, both men, at the time federal appeals court judges, spoke at length about their doubts concerning its wisdom and consequences. The decision, a 5-to-4 ruling in 2005, allowed local governments to take private property for business development and provoked outrage across the political spectrum.

Judge Sonia Sotomayor will doubtless be questioned about Kelo at her confirmation hearings next month. But her answers will be complicated by her participation in a 2006 decision applying and extending Kelo.

Bart Didden, the property owner on the losing side of that decision, Didden v. Village of Port Chester, said in an interview that he had been contacted by aides to Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee who seemed eager to explore Judge Sotomayor’s views on property rights.