WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court today has affirmed a ruling allowing Florida to undertake beach-widening projects without paying beachfront property owners who lose exclusive access to the water.

The court, by an 8-0 vote today, rejected a challenge by six homeowners in Florida's panhandle who argued that a beach-widening project changed their oceanfront property into oceanview. Justice John Paul Stevens took no part in the case.

Private property advocates had hoped the court would rule for the first time that a court decision can amount to a taking of property.