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The Supreme Court agreed Monday to take up an Alaskan pilot’s challenge to the state’s bid to seize his 1969 Cessna airplane over a passenger who tried to fly in a six-pack of Budweiser into a dry village.
Ken Jouppi, the pilot, denies knowing about the alcohol and says losing his plane is an excessive fine in violation of the Eighth Amendment.
He asserts that he knew about Alaska’s dry village rules and wouldn’t have deliberately broken them. But the beer was in the passenger’s luggage. Jouppi says he doesn’t search bags before taking off. He appealed to the justices after Alaska’s top court agreed that the plane is subject to forfeiture. Court documents show it’s worth roughly $95,000.
Jouppi argues the Eighth Amendment’s protection against excessive fines was “built for cases like this.”
“No matter that the offense is a misdemeanor. As here. No matter that the pilot is a first-time offender. As here. No matter that the alcohol is a six-pack of Budweiser. As here. No matter that it belonged to a customer. As here,” Jouppi’s lawyers wrote in their petition.
“The result: an airplane forfeited for a six-pack.”
Jouppi is represented by the libertarian Institute for Justice, which regularly petitions the Supreme Court to take up forfeiture and other cases it sees as government abuse.
The battle is set to be heard during the Supreme Court’s next term, which begins in October. A decision is likely by next summer.
The case stems from an April 3, 2012, flight that Jouppi was scheduled to run for a passenger from Fairbanks to Beaver.
Beaver, a remote area located just over 100 miles to the north, is a dry village. Alaska law makes it a state crime to “knowingly send, transport, or bring an alcoholic beverage” there, and vehicles involved are subject to forfeiture.
As the pilot was loading the plane, state troopers arrived on scene and discovered the beer, court documents show.
Jouppi was sentenced to three days’ imprisonment and a $1,500 fine. At issue now is Alaska’s bid to seize his Cessna aircraft under the statute.
In urging the Supreme Court to turn away Jouppi’s appeal, the state emphasized its “unique difficulties” in combatting alcohol abuse. Noting some Alaskan villages are primarily accessible by air, the state likened its seizure of planes to a long history of the government seizing ships in criminal prosecutions.
“Many remote communities in Alaska have limited law enforcement resources to respond to, for example, alcohol-fueled domestic violence. They also lack the public health resources to address other problems associated with alcohol abuse,” Alaska wrote in court filings.
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