EXCESSIVE FINES

Timbs v. Indiana

Issues

Is the Eighth Amendment’s Excessive Fines Clause, which prohibits the government requiring excessive payments as punishment for criminal offenses, incorporated against the states under the Fourteenth Amendment?

Court below

This case asks the Supreme Court to determine whether the Eighth Amendment prohibits the states from imposing excessive fines, fees, and forfeitures. Tyson Timbs contends that because the Excessive Fines Clause is deeply rooted in the United States’ history and tradition, it is a fundamental right that the states cannot violate as a result of the Fourteenth Amendment. The State of Indiana argues that the relevant issue is not whether the Excessive Fines Clause, in general, is incorporated against the states, but rather whether there is a proportionality requirement for state forfeitures concerning property, or in rem forfeitures. Indiana maintains that protection from disproportionate in rem forfeitures is not deeply rooted in our nation’s history and tradition. The outcome of this case will affect how states and localities generate revenue; the degree of financial burden that states and localities may impose on individuals; and state governments’ ability to deter criminal activity and reintegrate people within the criminal justice system into society.

Questions as Framed for the Court by the Parties

Whether the Eighth Amendment’s excessive fines clause is incorporated against the states under the Fourteenth Amendment.

In January 2013, Defendant Tyson Timbs purchased a Land Rover with $42,058.30 in life-insurance proceeds after his father’s death. Indiana v. Timbs at 2. Timbs then regularly used the Land Rover to buy and transport heroin in the State of Indiana for his drug addiction. Id. The police learned of Timbs’s drug trafficking, however, and set up three controlled heroin buys.

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Tyler v. Hennepin County, Minnesota

Issues

Does the government violate the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment and the Excessive Fines Clause of the Eighth Amendment when it requires a homeowner who owed property tax to the government to forfeit their property worth more than such debt and then keeps the surplus proceeds?

This case asks the Supreme Court to determine whether the government violates the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment and the Excessive Fines Clause of the Eighth Amendment when the government forfeits a homeowner’s property due to a property tax delinquency and keeps the surplus proceeds of that property’s sale.  Petitioner Geraldine Tyler argues that her equity interest in her condominium is private property protected by the Takings Clause, and that the government violated the Takings Clause by selling her home and retaining proceeds in excess of her debt to the government.  She further contends that the forfeiture serves punitive rather than remedial purposes and thus is an excessive fine under the Excessive Fines Clause.  Respondent Hennepin County asserts that the government has the sovereign power to foreclose on properties to hold tax delinquents accountable.  Hennepin County also argues that tax forfeitures do not violate the Excessive Fines Clause because they are remedial and not punitive.  This case’s holding will impact the constitutional limit on the government’s power over individual property rights and the government’s ability to promote Minnesota productive land use.

Questions as Framed for the Court by the Parties

(1) Whether taking and selling a home to satisfy a debt to the government, and keeping the surplus value as a windfall, violates the Fifth Amendment’s takings clause; and (2) whether the forfeiture of property worth far more than needed to satisfy a debt, plus interest, penalties, and costs, is a fine within the meaning of the Eighth Amendment.

Petitioner Geraldine Tyler owned a condominium in Minneapolis and stopped paying property taxes on it when she moved into a new apartment in 2010. See Tyler v.

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