Pung v. Isabella County, Michigan (25-95)
- Term
- OT 2025
- Argued
- 2026-02-25
- Decided
- 2026-06-23
- Vote
- 9-0 for Isabella County
- Opinion
- Justice Alito
- Majority
- Alito, Roberts, Sotomayor, Kagan, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Barrett, Jackson, Thomas
Holding
This is the Tyler v. Hennepin County follow-on. Tyler held (9-0) that retaining surplus from a tax foreclosure is a taking — i.e., the owner is entitled to the SURPLUS. The model treated that pro-property-owner trajectory as if it controlled the distinct COMPENSATION-MEASURE question (surplus vs. full fair-market value) and assumed the Tyler bloc would mechanically extend it to require FMV. It did not. The Court (slip op. 4-10) grounded the FMV holding in centuries of tax-sale history (Magna Carta, founding-era federal statutes, Taylor, Lawton, Nelson, BFP) under which the owner gets 'the surplus sale proceeds — nothing less, and nothing more.' Crucially, the very Michigan Rafaeli concurrence Pung leaned on came from a decision whose MAJORITY expressly rejected an FMV baseline (slip op. 6) — the on-point authority cut AGAINST Pung. Tyler decided there is a taking; it did NOT decide that FMV is the measure. Extrapolating direction-of-sympathy from a marquee precedent across a genuinely distinct legal question is the core error.
Pre-decision prediction
Pung 7-2 (70% confidence).
Opinion of the Court
Authored by Justice Alito (9,466 words total).
PUNG, PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT No. 25–95.
Argued February 25, 2026—Decided June 23, 2026
The Pung family owed $2,241.93 in real-property taxes, so local tax authorities in Isabella County, Michigan, initiated foreclosure proceedings and sold the Pung home—which was assessed at $194,400 for tax purposes—for $76,008 at public auction. Michael Pung sued in Federal court, and the District Court granted Pung partial summary judgment on his Fifth Amendment claim. The court held that Pung should receive only the surplus proceeds from the tax sale—i.e., the difference between the sale price and the tax debt—not the property’s fair market value. The District Court also rejected Pung’s claim under the Eighth Amendment Excessive Fines Clause. The Sixth Circuit affirmed. Held: 1. The proper baseline for measuring “just compensation” following a tax sale is the auction sale price, not the property’s hypothetical fair market value, at least when the sale is fairly conducted in light of the country’s history of tax sales. Pp. 4–11. (a) For hundreds of years, English and American law have allowed the seizure and sale of property as a tax-collection method, provided that the government return any surplus proceeds to the debtor. Federal statutes from the early days of the Republic applied this rule, as did this Court’s precedents. United States v. Taylor, 104 U. S. 216; United States v. Lawton, 110 U. S. 146; Nelson v. City of New York, 352 U. S. 103; BFP v. Resolution Trust Corporation, 511 U. S. 531. Pp. 4– 6. (b) Neither history nor precedent supports Pung’s contrary
Syllabus argument. Pung’s reliance on a recent concurrence by a Justice of the Supreme Court of Michigan interpreting the State Constitution does not shed much light on the Takings Clause’s meaning, see Rafaeli, LLC v. Oakland County, 505 Mich. 429, 485–522, 952 N. W. 2d 434, 466– 487 (Viviano, J., concurring). Cases about the seizure of multiple pieces of property do not help him because the County sold just one parcel of Pung’s real property, and Pung does not argue that the parcel could have been subdivided. Eminent-domain cases do not help him either because, even in that context, this Court has “refused to designate market value as the sole measure of just compensation,” United States v. 564.54 Acres of Monroe and Pike County Land, 441 U. S. 506, 512. Fair market value is not an appropriate measure of just compensation in this context because owners can generally avoid tax sales. Pung’s fair-market-value theory would impose unprecedented burdens on jurisdictions that wish to collect unpaid taxes and might well make tax sales impractical. Under Pung’s rule, a tax sale would often net the government a loss, paid out to the delinquent taxpayer himself, rendering tax sales infeasible as a debt-collection mechanism. That Pung’s novel interpretation of the Takings Clause would eliminate this longstanding practice is strong evidence that his interpretation is incorrect. Pp. 6–10. (c) The Court will not resolve any of Pung’s newfound contentions that the procedure the County followed in seizing and selling his property was unfair. The Sixth Circuit may address on remand any such arguments properly preserved in that court. Pp. 10–11. 2. The Court rejects Pung’s argument that the County violated the Eighth Amendment Excessive Fines Clause by failing to compensate him for his property’s fair market value. Forfeiture of property can be a “fin[e]” for purposes of the Eighth Amendment if it serves “in part to punish.” Austin v. United States, 509 U. S. 602, 610. Pung lacks precedent or historical evidence suggesting that a tax sale which is fairly conducted in light of our Nation’s history would violate the Eighth Amendment. In addition, imposing Pung’s fair-market-value rule under the Eighth Amendment would entail the same drastic consequences as imposing the rule under the Fifth Amendment. Pp. 11–12.
Vacated and remanded. ALITO, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which ROBERTS, C. J., and SOTOMAYOR, KAGAN, GORSUCH, KAVANAUGH, BARRETT, and JACKSON, JJ., joined, and in which THOMAS, J., joined except as to Part II–B. SOTOMAYOR, J., filed a concurring opinion, in which GORSUCH and JACKSON, JJ., joined. THOMAS, J., filed an opinion concurring in part and concurring in the judgment, in which GORSUCH, J., joined except as to n. 1.
Opinion of the Court NOTICE: This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the United States Reports. Readers are requested to notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Washington, D. C. 20543, pio@supremecourt.gov, of any typographical or other formal errors.
MICHAEL PUNG, PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE ESTATE OF TIMOTHY SCOTT PUNG, MICHIGAN ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT [June 23, 2026]
JUSTICE ALITO delivered the opinion of the Court. When taxpayers fall behind on their property-tax bills, federal, state, and local governments alike have long used foreclosure and sale as a collection method. In Tyler v. Hennepin County, 598 U. S. 631 (2023), we held that the Fifth Amendment Takings Clause requires the government to return any surplus proceeds from tax foreclosure sales, i.e., the difference between the sale price and the taxpayer’s debt. The question presented here is whether the government must pay more when the sale price falls below the property’s hypothetical fair market value. In other words, is the constitutional baseline for “just compensation” the actual tax-sale price or the price that someone would pay for the property in a hypothetical open-market transaction? We conclude that the proper baseline under the Takings Clause is the price obtained in a tax sale, at least when the sale is fairly conducted in light of our country’s history of tax sales. We also hold that, following a tax sale, the Eighth Amendment Excessive Fines Clause does not require the government to return more than the surplus proceeds.
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