Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by takyon on Thursday February 21 2019, @03:11AM   Printer-friendly
from the kick-back dept.

Supreme Court curbs power of government to impose heavy fines and seize property

In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled to drastically curb the powers that states and cities have to levy fines and seize property, marking the first time the court has applied the Constitution's ban on excessive fines at the state level.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who returned to the court for the first time in almost two months after undergoing surgery for lung cancer, wrote the majority opinion in the case involving an Indiana man who had his Land Rover seized after he was arrested for selling $385 of heroin.

"Protection against excessive fines has been a constant shield throughout Anglo-American history for good reason: Such fines undermine other liberties," Ginsburg wrote. "They can be used, e.g., to retaliate against or chill the speech of political enemies. They can also be employed, not in service of penal purposes, but as a source of revenue."

Also at National Review, SCOTUSblog, and NPR.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Thursday February 21 2019, @06:25AM (2 children)

    by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Thursday February 21 2019, @06:25AM (#804404) Journal

    So you're arguing that the US military is a terrorist organization?

    You can't reasonably even claim that they are always attempt to avoid killing or injuring non-combatants, but that's a lot stronger claim that you assert is necessary to mean that they are terrorists. And there is no question that the US military has often killed non-combatants. Kids at a grade schools are not combatants. (AFAICT, the instance that I heard reported was an accident, but it was done by the US military.)

    Mind you, given the tactics used in Viet Nam and more recently I wouldn't say that was a mis-characterization, but you need to understand what your definition implies.

    --
    Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 21 2019, @07:26AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 21 2019, @07:26AM (#804416)

    From the point of view of the victims of their multitudinous regime changes, you got targeting of civilians and infrastructure, not as colateral dammage but in addition to, with intent of political change. So it's not so much an argument as an observation.

  • (Score: 3, Funny) by FatPhil on Thursday February 21 2019, @12:45PM

    by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Thursday February 21 2019, @12:45PM (#804475) Homepage
    > So you're arguing that the US military is a terrorist organization?

    Yeah, I'm divided on that issue. Are they a terrorist organisation, or are they a mafia - it's such a tricky one to decide.
    --
    Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves