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In lawsuit, West Baltimore community association alleges city’s tax sale system is unconstitutional

Somil Trivedi, Chief Legal and Advocacy Director at Maryland Legal Aid, speaks at a news conference outside the Edmondson Community Center in West Baltimore shortly after a lawsuit challenging city tax sales was filed in court on July 2, 2024. (Ulysses Muñoz/The Baltimore Banner)
Ulysses Muñoz
/
The Baltimore Banner
Somil Trivedi, Chief Legal and Advocacy Director at Maryland Legal Aid, speaks at a news conference outside the Edmondson Community Center in West Baltimore shortly after a lawsuit challenging city tax sales was filed in court on July 2, 2024.

A nonprofit community association that serves a historically Black neighborhood in West Baltimore filed a lawsuit on Tuesday that challenges the city’s tax sale system, alleging that it systematically strips low-income people of their generational wealth and violates the Constitution.

The Edmondson Community Organization filed the case in U.S. District Court in Baltimore and asserts the city designed the system to sell as many tax liens as possible rather than ensure people are compensated for what their properties are actually worth. The nonprofit organization is asking a judge to award monetary damages and order the city to stop its practices, which the group claims are unconstitutional.

The case comes on the heels of a unanimous 2023 ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court that held that the government could not take and sell a house and then keep more money than the original tax debt.

The story continues at The Baltimore Banner: In lawsuit, West Baltimore community association alleges city’s tax sale system is unconstitutional

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