The US Supreme Court on October 19 declined to hear a challenge to Chicago's ordinance allowing the city to immobilize, tow and sell cars belonging to owners with unpaid parking and traffic tickets — but two justices sounded a public warning about its constitutionality.
Source: Mealey's
The case, O'Donnell v. City of Chicago, was brought by two motorists. Ryan O'Donnell owed $524.60 in parking tickets when the city sold his Toyota without clearing his debt or returning any proceeds, according to the Associated Press. Michael Goree's Chevrolet was seized because a co-signer on his car loan had ticket debt on a different vehicle.
Source: Associated Press
The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals had upheld the scheme, calling it a legitimate exercise of the city's police power to punish traffic-code violators.
Source: supremecourt.gov docket
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in a statement joined by Justice Neil Gorsuch, said she had 'serious concerns' about that ruling and encouraged lower courts 'to take care that due deference to state police powers does not eclipse constitutional rights.' She agreed the Court should wait until more lower courts have considered when police powers override the just-compensation requirement.
Chicago's ordinance lets the city immobilize any vehicle registered to an owner with three or more unpaid final ticket determinations — or two that are over a year old — then tow and ultimately dispose of unclaimed vehicles.
Lawyers for the car owners argued the ruling conflicts with the Supreme Court's 2023 decision in Tyler v. Hennepin County, which said a government cannot keep surplus funds when it sells property to pay an outstanding tax bill. The case now stands denied, but the Sotomayor-Gorsuch warning keeps the constitutional question alive for future litigation.