Supreme Court protects property rights of homeowners against government seizure.

The US Supreme Court has ruled that state and local governments cannot seize and sell homes of people with unpaid property taxes and keep the proceeds beyond the amount owed, deeming the practice unconstitutional. The ruling came in favor of a 94-year-old woman who accused Hennepin County, Minnesota, of violating her rights under the US Constitution's Fifth Amendment. The court agreed with her view that the county violated the Fifth Amendment's bar on the uncompensated taking of private property by a government for public use, a provision known as the "Takings Clause."