Alaska wants to seize pilots plane over 6-pack of beer. The case is heading to the Supreme Court
The Supreme Court agreed Monday to review an Alaska bush pilot’s claims that state authorities have tried to illegally seize his $95,000 airplane after a passenger brought a six-pack of beer on a flight bound for a dry village.The pilot, Kenneth Jouppi, sued to block his plane’s seizure after he was convicted of an alcohol-related misdemeanor charge.The Alaska Supreme Court ruled in the state’s favor that Jouppi’s plane was subject to criminal forfeiture laws.On Monday, however, the nation’s highest court agreed to hear Jouppi’s case.
He argues that taking his 1969 Cessna would violate the Eighth Amendment’s “Excessive Fines Clause.”Arguments are expected in the fall.“I’m in my 80s now, and I’ve been fighting this for over a decade because I see it as my duty to ensure that the Bill of Rights actually means something in protecting against government overreach,” Jouppi said in a statement released by his attorneys at the Institute for Justice.In April 2012, Jouppi was preparing to fly a passenger from Fairbanks to a remote village, Beaver, where alcohol was banned.The passenger had packed beer with other groceries in her luggage.
State Police troopers searched Jouppi’s plane before it departed and spotted a six-pack of Budweiser in a shopping bag.Jouppi, his company and the passenger were charged with a misdemeanor offense of knowingly transporting an alcoholic beverage into a dry community.The passenger pleaded guilty.
A jury convicted Jouppi and the company after a trial.A judge sentenced him to three days in jail.Jouppi’s attorneys say Alaska’s high court examined his conduct “purely in abstract terms” and didn’t evaluate whether it was part of a broader pattern of criminal activity.
And they say it wasn’t.“Few excessive fines cases will present the issue so sharply; a decision upholding the forfeiture of an airplane for a six-pack is a self-recommending candidate for review,” lawyers from the Institute for Justice ...