Columbus, OH – On Monday, The Buckeye Institute filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in Tyler v. Hennepin County, urging the court to protect people against governmental equity theft through property seizures.  

“In drafting the U.S. Constitution, our Founding Fathers embraced a principle that goes back more than 800 years to the Magna Carta, which enshrined into law the concept that the government can take property only when it provides ‘just compensation’ to the owner,” said Jay R. Carson, senior litigator with The Buckeye Institute. “When it pocketed $25,000 in profits from the sale of Ms. Tyler’s home, Hennepin County robbed Ms. Tyler of her home’s equity, and that sort of theft must stop.” 

Buckeye was joined on the brief by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Manhattan Institute, Platte Institute, National Federation of Independent Business, and Illinois Policy Institute.

Tyler v. Hennepin County is being argued by the Pacific Legal Foundation and started when Geraldine Tyler, a widow living alone, was forced to move due to rising crime in her neighborhood. Unable to pay taxes on her condo and the rent on her new apartment, Ms. Tyler’s tax debt grew to $15,000. Officials in Hennepin County, Minnesota, seized her condo and sold it a year later for $40,000. Rather than keep $15,000 to cover the tax debt and return the remaining $25,000 to Ms. Tyler, Hennepin County pocketed the profits, robbing Ms. Tyler of her home’s equity. 

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UPDATE: On May 25, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that when Minnesota pocketed $25,000 in profits from the sale of Ms. Tyler’s home, the state violated the takings clause under the Fifth Amendment. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice Roberts wrote, “A taxpayer who loses her $40,000 house to the State to fulfill a $15,000 tax debt has made a far greater contribution to the public fisc than she owed. The taxpayer must render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, but no more.”

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