A federal judge has ruled in a class action lawsuit that Cook County’s “Tax Sales” violate the US Constitution, potentially putting the county on the hook for tens of millions of dollars to compensate people who lost their properties after falling behind on property taxes.
One of the attorneys for the plaintiffs, Lawrence Wood, with the non-profit Legal Action Chicago, says Judge Matthew Kennelly determined the tax sales violate two “basic constitutional principles.”
“What the court held is that the county violated the Fifth Amendment’s prohibition against taking property without providing just compensation and the county violated the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against excessive fines,” Wood said…