Unanimous ruling in supreme court fixes problem where the government was allowed to sell someone's home and keep everything even if they only owed $1k in debt.
Unanimous ruling in supreme court fixes problem where the government was allowed to sell someone's home and keep everything even if they only owed $1k in debt.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday curbed state and local governments from seizing and selling the homes of people with unpaid property taxes and keeping the proceeds beyond the amount owed, deeming the practice unconstitutional in a ruling in favor of a 94-year-old woman who battled tax authorities...
This specific case revolved around a 94 yr old woman in Minnesota who owed $15k in taxes. Her home was taken away and sold for $40k and the government kept everything from the auction.
It's hard to believe that this was ever legal, this is a major win for common sense rulings.
This is a good move. Now we need them to take on/reverse civil asset forfeiture as a whole.
Agreed, a few states (4-5?) have been able to fully eliminate the biggest issue with civil asset forfeiture (including removing the loophole that allows their state employees from working with the federal govt. to get around those restrictions).
Over half the states have started to do something about it. But as long as that loophole remains and as long as the federal govt. itself can continue to abuse civil asset forfeiture, we'll continue to see problems.