Supreme Court delivers justice in tax dispute cases.

The US Supreme Court has ruled that states cannot retain more than what a taxpayer owed when seizing private property to recoup unpaid taxes. The unanimous decision came in a case concerning a 94-year-old woman in Minnesota who had stopped paying property taxes on her condominium after moving into an assisted-living center. The county seized the property and sold it at auction for $40,000, keeping not only the $15,000 that all agreed it was due but also the remaining $25,000. The court ruled that retaining the entire value of a confiscated property, even when the debts owed amounted to a small portion of it, is a violation of the Constitution’s takings clause.