WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday weighs a 94-year-old woman’s claim that a Minnesota county violated the Constitution by retaining a $25,000 profit when it sold her home in a tax foreclosure sale. Geraldine Tyler’s home in a Hennepin County, which includes the city of Minneapolis, was seized because she owed $15,000 in taxes and fees. But the county sold the home for $40,000 and kept all the proceeds, Tyler’s lawyers at the Pacific Legal Foundation say. The conservative group, which often litigates property rights issues, calls the practice "home equity theft," and is asking the Supreme Court to end it. The court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, is often sympathetic to property rights claims. The Pacific Legal Foundation said in a report last year that a dozen states regularly allow the practice and other states have laws on the books that could permit it in some circumstances. The remaining states return the surplus proceeds when a seized property is sold. Six states — Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Montana, Nebraska and New Jersey — allow private investors to retain equity in properties once the delinquent taxes are paid, Pacific Legal Foundation says. Others allow the government to pocket […]
