Supreme Court Limits Seizures Of Private Property By Law Enforcement

The United States Supreme Court has finally taken steps to address the unconstitutional police practice of civil asset forfeiture being waged against citizens whether innocent and guilty. On Wednesday, the court unanimously ruled 9–0 after finding a ban of excessive fines, which is written into the 8th Amendment of the Constitution, applies to state and local authorities in their handling of a civilian private property — effectively limiting unjust police seizures across the nation.

The case, Timbs v. Indiana, focuses on a lawsuit Tyson Timbs filed against his state after pleading guilty to drug dealing and conspiracy to commit theft, which resulted in one year of home detention and five years of probation. This punishment, however, also resulted in unethical profits for both the state and police departments handling the investigation. After Timbs pleaded guilty, the Indiana court ordered the forfeiture of a Land Rover SUV which is valued at $42,000, according to estimates from The Washington Post. This car, reportedly paid through a family life insurance policy, costs over four times the maximum fine of $10,000 for charges of Timbs’ kind — thus making the seizure an unquestionably excessive fine.

The legal debate dissolved into whether states, like the federal government, are restricted from imposing…