Today the Supreme Court held oral argument in Pung v. Isabella County, an important takings case in which I filed an amicus brief on behalf of the Cato Institute, myself, and a group of prominent takings scholars. Frustratingly, much of the oral argument focused on the wrong issue.
This is a case about home equity theft. Isabella County, Michigan seized the late Timothy Pung's house because he supposedly failed to pay some $2200 in taxes and fees (his estate claims he didn't actually owe anything). They then sold the property at auction for about $76,000; the County kept the $2200 it thought was owed and transferred the remaining funds (about $73,800) to Pung's estate.
