Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/22-166_8n59.pdf
Page Number: 17.0

14 

TYLER v. HENNEPIN COUNTY 

Opinion of the Court 

disclaimer of ” all rights in the property.  Rowe v. Minneap-
olis, 49 Minn. 148, 157, 51 N. W. 907, 908 (1892).  “It is the 
owner’s failure to make any use of the property”—and for a 
lengthy period of time—“that causes the lapse of the prop-
erty right.”  Texaco, 454 U. S., at 530 (emphasis added).  In 
Texaco, the owners lost their property because they made 
no use of their interest for 20 years and then failed to take 
the simple step of filing paperwork indicating that they still 
claimed ownership over the interest.  In comparison, Min-
nesota’s forfeiture scheme is not about abandonment at all. 
It gives no weight to the taxpayer’s use of the property.  In-
deed,  the  delinquent  taxpayer  can  continue  to  live  in  her 
house  for  years  after  falling  behind  in  taxes,  up  until  the
government  sells  it.  See  §281.70.   Minnesota  cares  only
about the taxpayer’s failure to contribute her share to the
public fisc.  The County cannot frame that failure as aban-
donment to avoid the demands of the Takings Clause. 

* 

* 

* 

The  Takings  Clause  “was  designed  to  bar  Government 
from  forcing  some  people  alone  to  bear  public  burdens 
which,  in  all  fairness  and  justice,  should  be  borne  by  the
public as a whole.”  Armstrong, 364 U. S., at 49.  A taxpayer
who loses her $40,000 house to the State to fulfill a $15,000 
tax debt has made a far greater contribution to the public 
fisc than she owed.  The taxpayer must render unto Caesar 
what is Caesar’s, but no more. 

Because we find that Tyler has plausibly alleged a taking 
under the Fifth Amendment, and she agrees that relief un-
der  “the  Takings  Clause  would  fully  remedy  [her]  harm,” 
we need not decide whether she has also alleged an exces-
sive fine under the Eighth Amendment.  Tr. of Oral Arg. 27. 
The judgment of the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
is reversed. 

It is so ordered.