Timbs v. Indiana

139 S.Ct. 682 (2018)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

D pled guilty to dealing in a controlled substance and conspiracy to commit theft. D was sentenced to one year of home detention and five years of probation, which included a court-supervised addiction-treatment program. The sentence required D to pay fees and costs totaling $1,203. At the time of D’s arrest, the police seized his vehicle, a Land Rover SUV D had purchased for about $42,000. D paid for the vehicle with money he received from an insurance policy when his father died. P engaged a private law firm to bring a civil suit for forfeiture of D’s Land Rover, charging that the vehicle had been used to transport heroin. The court denied observing that D had recently purchased the vehicle for $42,000, more than four times the maximum $10,000 monetary fine assessable against him for his drug conviction. Forfeiture would be grossly disproportionate to the gravity of D’s offense, hence unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment’s Excessive Fines Clause. The Court of Appeals affirmed, but the Indiana Supreme Court reversed. It held that the Excessive Fines Clause constrains only federal action and is inapplicable to state impositions. The Supreme Court granted certiorari.