US Supreme Court rules "fines can not be excessive"

[Matt Gruber]

quick summary of amazing case
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNM20o3EIss
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if you want to know more about the Institute for Justice
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_for_Justice
interesting 8)

 

[HK12K]

However...

https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ

 

[Dauntless]

Fines not be excessive is something they try to get around everywhere. I don't get tickets so I don't know the history, but in California they're always pulling something to get around state law that caps the size of the fines. So you'd get a ticket and you'd have to pay double for terms such as an "Assessment." The municipal courts get busted, they come up with a different excuse. But if they took the Land Rover in 2015, how did they have it for 7 years? Was there a Tardis involved?

There's this good question on asset forfeiture. Fruits and instrumentalities of the crime IS defined as forfeit. Sounds like he wasn't caught using it, no prove he paid for it with drug money.

So my Father died and my Mother moved away, 20 years old and I was on my own. Two brothers who couldn't take care of themselves came to live with me, also two questionable sisters. Drug problems all around, but I caught the brothers dealing, had showdowns with people over coming to my house looking for drugs; one of them got the boot for numerous reasons, the other stayed on the cusp. Oh, I just had a house because Mom wanted me to be sure these socalled adults had someone to take care of them and that kept me from a better college. But I was sweating that asset forfeiture possibility all the time and it was a danger as long as they were there. . . .

 

[momus3]

The devil is in the details. Who defines what "excessive" is? The lawyers will have a field day with that term.

Asset forfeiture, otherwise knowing as the state "legally" stealing your stuff and giving you a big raspberry at the same time, needs to be stopped. When I lived in New Mexico the cops were always doing this, and no crime needed to be proved. You just had to be suspected of one. Merely having cash over a certain amount is considered a crime in many places, and they will take it from you in a lot of states. Then it's your responsibility to prove that you didn't get it through some criminal activity, which sounds easy but it's not. Meanwhile the funds are gone, sometimes for years and years, sometimes forever. Well, not gone, you know somebody got it. In NM they spend it on cop equipment even if the charges are dropped!

A few cities have gone to a non cash bail system if the suspect shows no risk of fleeing, which is more better but it's selectively enforced. What it comes down to is, in this country, if you're white you get a small bail or none at all, and if you're darker you get a high bail or are denied bail. The fix is in from the very beginning.

It all reminds me of what Burt Reynolds said to someone whose daughter had been abused so badly by a powerful businessman that she died. The father expected justice (in a surprisingly good movie called Hustle)....."What country do you think you're living in Marty? You live in Guatemala with color TV!" Nowadays, you probably have a better chance of justice in Guatemala.

 

[markz]

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Some places fines are sliding scale, so a rich guy's fine could be $1000 but for the same fine, the average joe's fine would be $200. Not sure what country that is, I would guess Scandavia where they just look at your tax return.

 

[MJSfoto1956]

Not sure why this is news (or why the Supremes took so long to weigh in) but the 8th amendment says basically the same thing:

The Eighth Amendment (Amendment VIII) of the United States Constitution prohibits the federal government from imposing excessive bail, excessive fines, or cruel and unusual punishments.

AFAIK, pretty much every state in the union adopted similar language for their own constitutions.

To the poster who mentioned a sliding-scale: that would make sense and would seem to align well with the intent of the writers of the constitution.

M

 

[markz]

took so long to weigh in

Because they literally do not care, their motto is f! the poor and f! the minorities.

Edit - BTW two of the top judges in the country are paid off by the Koch brothers. Interestingly enough, the African American one is paid off.

 

[MJSfoto1956]

BTW two of the top judges [sic] in the country are paid off by the Koch brothers.

Justices, not judges! Yup, Clarence and his wife are consummate grifters. No wonder they are fans of Trump.

 

[j bjork]

.

Some places fines are sliding scale, so a rich guy's fine could be $1000 but for the same fine, the average joe's fine would be $200. Not sure what country that is, I would guess Scandavia where they just look at your tax return.

We have it to some degree in Sweden, I think they have more of it in Norway.
It works on honest people who have an income.