‘$EIZE’ & DESIST RULING
Supremes nix state grabs
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Wednesday that the Constitution’s ban on excessive fines applies to the states — a decision that could slow the NYPD’s seizures of vehicles and other property from criminal suspects.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote the court’s opinion in favor of Tyson Timbs, of Marion, Ind., whose $40,000 Land Rover was seized when cops busted him for selling less than $400 worth of heroin.
“For good reason, the protection against excessive fines has been a constant shield throughout Anglo-American history: Exorbitant tolls undermine other constitutional liberties,” Ginsburg wrote, citing the Eighth Amendment.
“Excessive fines can be used, for example, to retaliate against or chill the speech of political enemies. Even absent a political motive, fines may be employed in a measure out of accord with the penal goals of retribution and deterrence.”
The Eighth Amendment says, “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”
The first and third of those commands already apply to state and local governments. But until now, the ban on excessive fines did not.
Defense lawyers and civil libertarians hailed the ruling.
“For the citizens of New York, this ruling means that any fines or forfeiture of personal property will finally be in proportion to the charged crime. This is a just ruling,” said attorney Alain Massena, who has represented clients trying to reclaim their property.
Professor Eugene O’Donnell, of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said the ruling, while “sensible” because of “ridiculous abuses,” could hamper the NYPD.
“There’s been ridiculous abuses. It was so abused. You would not meet anyone who worked around this who didn’t see abuse. If people had a loud car radio, they [seize] the car,” he said. “You had agencies that were buying exotic equipment they didn’t need because it was a cash cow.”
But, he added, “You’re also taking a tool out of the toolbox.”
An NYPD spokeswoman said the department could not immediately provide data on the numbers of cars it had seized.
In the Indiana case, Timbs pleaded guilty and faced no prison time — but he did lose the Land Rover. A judge ruled that taking the car was disproportionate to the crime, which carried a maximum fine of $10,000.
The Supreme Court unanimously slapped some badly needed handcuffs on state and local governments Wednesday by ruling that they’re subject to the US Constitution’s ban on “excessive fines.”
The justices found that the ban must apply to states because it’s “fundamental to our scheme of ordered liberty” and “deeply rooted” in US law, history and tradition.
Indeed, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg noted that prohibitions on excess fines go back to the days of the Magna Carta in 1215. And for good reason: They can be wrongly used “to retaliate against or chill the speech of political enemies” or as “a source of revenue” out of line with “the penal goals of retribution and deterrence.”
In the case before the court, Tyson Timbs pleaded guilty to selling less than $400 worth of heroin and was sentenced to a year of home detention, five years probation and fees of $1,203. Yet Indiana also demanded he also forfeit the Land Rover it said he’d used in the sale.
Talk about punishment not fitting the crime: The car’s value, $42,000, was more than four times the $10,000 maximum legal financial penalty, as the trial court noted in denying the state’s request. Yet Indiana’s Supreme Court reversed that decision, claiming the Eighth Amendment’s Excessive Fines Clause didn’t apply to states.
Fact is, state and local governments have long abused their power to fine people, even those not yet convicted, and confiscate property. After the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., it came out that a full fifth of that city’s revenues came from court fines. Officials basically admitted they’d relied on them to finance their government — one of the very abuses Ginsburg flagged.
And some cases amount to downright theft: Wayne County, Mich., for example, grabbed a 2015 Kia Soul when its owner was found with just $10 worth of pot.
Now officials are on notice: Slapping excessive fines, even on criminals, makes the government just as guilty as them.