On Monday, The Buckeye Institute submitted an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of McGee v. Alger County Treasurer, urging the court to address what it describes as Michigan’s unconstitutional violation of homeowners’ Fifth Amendment rights. The Manhattan Institute and the National Federation of Independent Business Small Business Legal Center joined The Buckeye Institute in filing the brief.
Jay R. Carson, senior litigator at The Buckeye Institute and counsel of record on this brief, stated: “The Fifth Amendment’s just compensation requirement is categorical. When the government takes property, it must pay for it. Michigan cannot excuse local governments from the duty to pay just compensation by creating a byzantine claims process designed to prey on dispossessed homeowners and their families.”
The organizations argue that “the Fifth Amendment—and the historical antecedents on which the Framers relied in crafting it—conditions the government’s power to take property on the payment of just compensation.” They contend that despite clear constitutional language and a recent Supreme Court ruling in Tyler v. Hennepin County, Minnesota, Michigan lawmakers have established barriers that make it difficult for homeowners to claim their rights under Tyler.
The brief cites a specific case involving Jacqueline McGee. After her sudden death, Alger County foreclosed on her home only 10 days later due to an overdue property tax bill of $3,600. The county then auctioned off her house for $38,250 and kept $34,650 in profit—a sum which should have gone to McGee’s family according to the Tyler decision.
According to The Buckeye Institute and its partners, Michigan’s complex surplus equity claims process and lenient default rules serve no legitimate purpose other than increasing profits for local governments at citizens’ expense.
Jacqueline McGee’s family is represented by Pacific Legal Foundation in this case.
