(The Center Square) – According to an amicus brief filed in the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas has refused to follow a Supreme Court ruling that said the county is not entitled to sovereign immunity and the unlawful confiscation of surplus equity.
Pacific Legal Foundation filed the brief saying Cook County confiscated homes over relatively small tax debts, auctioned them off and then kept the entire amount, not just taxes and penalties.
PLF asked the appeals court to affirm the district court’s finding in Michelle Kidd et al v. Pappas that the uncompensated confiscation of surplus equity violates the U.S. Constitution’s Fifth and Eighth Amendments.
According to the brief, the county took Kidd’s $166,000 home over a $2,300 tax debt.
PLF attorney Tanmay Shukla said Pappas is claiming sovereign immunity by saying state law binds her hands.
“That is the sort of loophole that, if I’m quite blunt about it, we expect predatory lenders to exploit, but the strange thing about this tax sale and tax foreclosure is that we have local governments doing it instead,” Shukla told The Center Square.
In 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the difference between the amount owed and the government gets at auction must be paid back to the property owner.
Shukla said, before Tyler v. Hennepin County in 2023, the government would use “the toehold” of small tax debts to acquire property, auction it off and keep the whole amount.
According to Shukla, Cook County has not responded.
“It continues to stick to its old practices because of which people are losing their surplus equity, which often represents their life savings,” Shukla said.
Pappas is claiming sovereign immunity under state law, even though the U.S. Constitution does not entitle counties to sovereign immunity.
“So their basic argument is that under state law, they are not allowed to follow the Constitution, and I know that this sounds ridiculous because it is,” Shukla said.
A spokesperson for the treasurer’s office provided The Center Square with a statement in response.
“The Cook County Treasurer’s Office does not comment on active litigation, but the PLF is grossly misrepresenting the facts to the media in a blatant effort to promote its right-wing agenda,” the statement said.
The treasurer’s office said it spearheaded the effort to reform Illinois property tax sale law, culminating in HB 4537 that Cook County has followed since it was enacted on July 10, 2026.
“Any allegation that Cook County is still following past practices is categorically false,” the statement said.
