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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.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday February 21 2019, @12:43PM (1 child)
> ... not [...] regular government employees that have nothing to do with whatever the "cause" is.
If "the man" is the problem, then "working for the man" means you are part of the problem. It's now just shades of grey to decide whether someone working for them man has "nothing to do with whatever the "cause" is". You've just shifted the argument, not solved it.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 22 2019, @08:26PM
government workers are perfectly legitimate targets and Timothy McVeigh was a true american patriot. too bad all those little "treasonous pigs in training" died, but that's what you get when you have kids on the dime of the people and you store them in a building for the fucking atf.