Articles

In 2017, officials in Gratiot County, Michigan, seized Donald Freed’s $97,000 home to pay an overdue tax debt of $1,100. The county sold his property at auction for $42,000 and kept all of the proceeds from the sale. Shockingly Michigan’s property tax law requires this all-too-common practice. It’s a nice racket for the county, wh ...

For the sake of justice, the Michigan Supreme Court should step in and secure to Uri Rafaeli, Andre Ohanessian, and people across Michigan what rightfully belongs to them. … ...

Rose Mary Knick owns a quiet, 90-acre, stone-fenced farm in rural Pennsylvania. The parcel is bounded on all sides by old stone walls and no trespassing signs at various intervals. According to the local government, it also contains an ancient burial ground of some sort… … ...

In January 2013, Uri Rafaeli’s business—Rafaeli, LLC—tried to pay the overdue taxes for a modest rental home in Southfield, Michigan.  Rafaeli miscalculated the interest due for the delinquent 2011 taxes and underpaid by $8.41. A year later, Oakland County foreclosed on the property. The County then auctioned the property for $24,500 and ...

This week, Pacific Legal Foundation attorneys filed a Petition for Certiorari asking the United States Supreme Court to review the case of Nies v. Town of Emerald Isle, discussed more here.  The Petition presents the important question of “whether the Takings Clause permits a state to statutorily redefine an entire coastline of privately ow ...

In recent years, many local and state governments have used crafty methods to take access to private beaches without first paying for the right. Governments have imposed easements on private land, declared private land public, declared a right of custom where none existed, and attempted to expand the public trust doctrine beyond its limit. Today, ...

This weekend, Forbes carried an excellent story about PLF’s fight on behalf of Edward and Delanie Goodwin. In July, PLF attorneys filed a First Amendment challenge to protect the Goodwins’ right to speak on their own private property. Walton County banned signs on privately owned beaches last year, hoping to allow the public to trespass ...

This week, PLF filed a petition asking the full Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals to rehear the takings case of Wayside Church, Henderson Hodgens, and Myron Stahl. All three lost their property to Van Buren County after they fell behind on their 2011 taxes. The County foreclosed on their properties and sold each for significantly … ...

Today, the United States Supreme Court issued its oral argument calendar for March, 2017. Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) is pleased to note that the Court included PLF’s important property rights case, Murr v. State of Wisconsin, on that March calendar. The Court has specifically scheduled the Murr case for argument on March 20, 2017. … ...