MIDLAND, Mich. — The Mackinac Center Legal Foundation filed an amicus curiae brief with the Supreme Court of the United States in Michael Pung v. Isabella County. The case from Michigan addresses whether governments may seize and sell a home for alleged unpaid taxes for less than market value, denying former owners the full value of their equity.

The brief argues that when government takes and sells property to satisfy tax debt, the Constitution requires it to obtain fair-market value — ensuring homeowners are not stripped of equity or subjected to penalties beyond what they owe.

Current Michigan practices create an unfair double standard: The state shields homeowners from losing their equity to private creditors, yet allows itself to destroy that same equity when it is the creditor by selling the property for less than it is worth.

In short, the system lets the state tilt the rules in its own favor.

The amicus contends that Michigan’s current practices effectively grant government “super-creditor” status, allowing counties to auction homes at depressed values and keep the proceeds, in violation of the Fifth and Eighth Amendments. In short, the system lets the state tilt the rules in its own favor.

At issue is a foreclosed home in Isabella County that was sold at a tax auction for approximately $76,000 — despite a fair-market value of about $194,400. The county conducted the sale in a way that caused the former homeowner to lose out on the equity he had accumulated in the value of the home.

“The Constitution forbids government from taking more than it is owed,” said Derk Wilcox, senior attorney at the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation. “And it can’t just sell it for well below what the property is truly worth — for a price that only covers the tax debt. This case provides the Court an opportunity to clarify that homeowners’ equity is protected.”

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear the case in its current October 2025–2026 term but has yet to set the date for argument.