Overview
- During oral arguments, justices from across the ideological spectrum questioned requiring governments to pay homeowners based on appraised value rather than the price obtained at a properly run sale.
- In Pung v. Isabella County, the county seized a home over $2,242 in unpaid taxes and sold it for $76,008, though records placed its value near $194,400 and a later resale reached about $195,000.
- The family argues the Fifth Amendment’s takings clause and the Eighth Amendment’s excessive fines clause entitle them to full market value, not merely the auction surplus returned after Tyler v. Hennepin County.
- Isabella County and the Justice Department counter that longstanding practice limits recovery to surplus proceeds from a fair sale and that the Excessive Fines Clause does not apply to tax collection.
- A ruling, expected by late June, could reset standards for tax-foreclosure procedures and homeowner remedies nationwide, extending or narrowing the 2023 Tyler precedent.