Supreme Court Considers Fairness in Property Rights Case Involving Seized Condo.

The US Supreme Court is considering whether Hennepin County, Minnesota, violated the Constitution's prohibition on the taking of private property without "just compensation" when it sold a 94-year-old woman's condominium over a small unpaid tax bill and kept the entire $40,000. The justices seemed in broad agreement with arguments by the woman's lawyer that the county took her property and made a profit on her surplus equity. The county said she did nothing to hold onto her one-time residence. The justices could leave it to a lower court to sort out the money details.