Al Qaeda lawyer Neal Katyal loses in Supreme Court decision.
Unanimous Court Rejects Katyal’s Argument: County Cannot Seize Elderly Woman’s Home and Take All the Profits
The Supreme Court has made a unanimous ruling against left-wing lawyer Neal Katyal, who argued that a Minnesota county was justified in taking all the profits from the sale of an elderly woman’s confiscated home.
Katyal, who once defended Al Qaeda terrorists, represented Hennepin County, which contains Minneapolis, after it seized the woman’s condo over a small unpaid tax. The county received $40,000 from the sale of Geraldine Tyler’s condo, who was 94 at the time, after she owed $15,000 in total with penalties and interest on the unpaid taxes.
The High Court has ruled that states that seize and sell private property to make up for unpaid taxes cannot keep more from the sales than what a taxpayer owed.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the Court’s opinion, stating that “the county had the power to sell Tyler’s home to recover the unpaid property taxes,” but added that the county “could not use the toehold of the tax debt to confiscate more property than was due.”
The justices were unconvinced by Katyal’s arguments in April. Justice Neil Gorsuch even mocked the lawyer’s argument that expensive properties could be seized for minuscule missing payments. “So a $5 property tax, a million dollar property, good to go?” Gorsuch asked Katyal, who answered in the affirmative.
Katyal, who was acting solicitor general under former president Barack Obama, is no stranger to representing controversial defendants. He is known as a member of the “al Qaeda 7,” a group of lawyers who represented al Qaeda terrorists against the Bush administration.
In 2020, Katyal appeared before the Supreme Court to defend Nestlé and Cargill, who faced charges of abetting child slavery at cocoa plantations in Africa.
Katyal, a frequent face on MSNBC, rose to fame by leading challenges against former president Donald Trump’s temporary travel ban in 2017 on countries including North Korea, Iran, and Venezuela.
Unanimous Court Rejects Katyal’s Argument: County Cannot Seize Elderly Woman’s Home and Take All the Profits
The Supreme Court has made a unanimous ruling against left-wing lawyer Neal Katyal, who argued that a Minnesota county was justified in taking all the profits from the sale of an elderly woman’s confiscated home.
Katyal, who once defended Al Qaeda terrorists, represented Hennepin County, which contains Minneapolis, after it seized the woman’s condo over a small unpaid tax. The county received $40,000 from the sale of Geraldine Tyler’s condo, who was 94 at the time, after she owed $15,000 in total with penalties and interest on the unpaid taxes.
The High Court has ruled that states that seize and sell private property to make up for unpaid taxes cannot keep more from the sales than what a taxpayer owed.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the Court’s opinion, stating that “the county had the power to sell Tyler’s home to recover the unpaid property taxes,” but added that the county “could not use the toehold of the tax debt to confiscate more property than was due.”
The justices were unconvinced by Katyal’s arguments in April. Justice Neil Gorsuch even mocked the lawyer’s argument that expensive properties could be seized for minuscule missing payments. “So a $5 property tax, a million dollar property, good to go?” Gorsuch asked Katyal, who answered in the affirmative.
Katyal’s Controversial Career
- Katyal, who was acting solicitor general under former president Barack Obama, is no stranger to representing controversial defendants.
- He is known as a member of the “al Qaeda 7,” a group of lawyers who represented al Qaeda terrorists against the Bush administration.
- In 2020, Katyal appeared before the Supreme Court to defend Nestlé and Cargill, who faced charges of abetting child slavery at cocoa plantations in Africa.
Katyal, a frequent face on MSNBC, rose to fame by leading challenges against former president Donald Trump’s temporary travel ban in 2017 on countries including North Korea, Iran, and Venezuela.
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