Here's the OA video (courtesy of the Michigan Supreme Court) from last week's arguments in what we're calling the "keep the change" case.
That's the one where the government is arguing that after a property owner was late paying $8.00 in property taxes, the government is not only entitled to foreclose on the property, but to keep the difference between the sales price and the taxes and penalties owed. As our Louisiana friends might say, that's a bit more than lagniappe.
Eight bucks is more like a rounding error than a significant underpayment, but we get that you do owe every cent. And that when you don't pay on time, they can hit you up for the taxes owed, the interest, and penalties. But as Gilbert & Sullivan wrote in their famous treatise on Remedies, "let the punishment fit the crime." They can't just pocket the difference, no? Pacific Legal Foundation argues that's a taking under the Michigan and U.S. Constitutions.
We watched the OA live, and it is worth your time. Check out the briefing here.
Two things to watch for:
We shall await the decision of the court and bring it to you when issued.
- Starting at the 15:20 mark, Christina Martin (the owner's attorney) is wrapping her opening argument. A justice asks for the name of a particular case, which Ms. Martin cannot recall. So she responds, "I can't remember the name off the top of my head, but I will have it for you during my rebuttal. With your permission, I'd like to reserve the remainder of my time." To which Chief Justice McCormack replied, "Well done. I've never seen anyone do that that well. Reserving of the time. Your argument was great too." Smooth transitions are every advocate's goal.
- The County's argument kept employing what we thought was a curious analogy. To illustrate the point that the property owner was provided opportunities to pay the $8 deficiency (and thus the government didn't "take" the property, as much as the owner "gave" it), the lawyer talked about how if his child doesn't pick up his toys after a number of warnings, he simply seizes them. We find this a poor analogy, as Ms. Martin noted: "the government is not our parent; its purpose is actually to protect our rights, not to police how clean we keep our room."
