Supreme Court delivers victories for homeowners in tax and equity disputes.

The US Supreme Court has ruled unanimously that a 94-year-old woman can pursue her claim that a Minnesota county violated the Constitution by keeping a $25,000 profit when it sold her home in a tax foreclosure sale. The court concluded that Geraldine Tyler's claim that such seizures violate the takings clause of the Constitution's Fifth Amendment, which requires that the government pay compensation when property is taken, is plausible and should be allowed to move forward. The Pacific Legal Foundation, which litigates property rights issues, calls the practice "home equity theft."