A sharply divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled Friday that property owners can go directly to federal court with claims that state and local regulations effectively deprive landowners of the use of their property.

The 5-to-4 decision overturned decades of precedent that barred property owners from going to federal court until their claims had been denied in state court.

The public got its first look Thursday at Lois Lerner, who has gone from faceless IRS bureaucrat to the face that launched what feels like 1,000 congressional hearings and conspiracy theories.

But it was only a brief sighting since she didn't stay long at a House hearing to further probe her role in how some IRS workers came to target conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status.

The Internal Revenue Service official who first disclosed that the agency had targeted conservative groups for special scrutiny, and in doing so ignited a controversy that has ensnared the White House, denied on Wednesday that she had ever provided false information to Congress. She then invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and declined to testify at a House hearing on the agencys actions.

Lois Lerner, the head of the IRS unit handling tax-exempt status, invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday.
She is in the spotlight following a Treasury inspector general's report that found her unit used political criteria to screen applications for tax-exempt status from tea party and other conservative organizations.
Lerner joins a long line of officials who "took the Fifth" when called to testify before Congress.

Republican Rep. Darrell Issa declared Thursday that the embattled IRS official who refused to testify Wednesday had no right to do so, and is now looking to haul her back before his committee.