The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday it will take up the case of an Alaska bush pilot who says state officials went too far when they sought to confiscate his $95,000 airplane after a passenger carried a six-pack of beer on a flight headed to a village where alcohol is prohibited.
Kenneth Jouppi, the pilot at the center of the dispute, filed suit in an effort to stop the state from seizing his aircraft following his conviction on an alcohol-related misdemeanor.
Alaska’s highest court previously sided with the state, concluding that Jouppi’s plane could be taken under criminal forfeiture laws.
But on Monday, the nation’s top court agreed to review the legal fight, giving Jouppi another chance to challenge the attempted forfeiture.
Jouppi contends that forcing him to give up his 1969 Cessna would amount to an unconstitutional punishment under the Eighth Amendment’s Excessive Fines Clause.
The Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments in the case this fall.
“I’m in my 80s now, and I’ve been fighting this for over a decade because I see it as my duty to ensure that the Bill of Rights actually means something in protecting against government overreach,” Jouppi said in a statement issued by his lawyers with the Institute for Justice.
The case dates back to April 2012, when Jouppi was getting ready to transport a passenger from Fairbanks to Beaver, a remote Alaska village that bans alcohol.
The passenger had packed beer with other groceries in her luggage.
State Police troopers searched Jouppi’s plane before it departed and spotted a six-pack of Budweiser in a shopping bag.
Jouppi, his company and the passenger were charged with a misdemeanor offense of knowingly transporting an alcoholic beverage into a dry community.
The passenger pleaded guilty.
A jury convicted Jouppi and the company after a trial.
A judge sentenced him to three days in jail.
Jouppi’s attorneys say Alaska’s high court examined his conduct “purely in abstract terms” and didn’t evaluate whether it was part of a broader pattern of criminal activity.
And they say it wasn’t.
“Few excessive fines cases will present the issue so sharply; a decision upholding the forfeiture of an airplane for a six-pack is a self-recommending candidate for review,” lawyers from the Institute for Justice wrote in their appeal.
In response, lawyers from the Alaska Attorney General’s office argued that the state Supreme Court’s “fact-bound decision” should be allowed to stand.
“Courts across the country apply a multi-factor test to determine whether a fine or forfeiture is grossly disproportional to the gravity of the offense,” they wrote.
“Jouppi does not claim that the four-part standard applied by the Alaska Supreme Court is wrong, only that the court misapplied settled law by giving too much weight to some factors and not enough weight to others.”
Jouppi’s attorneys argue that the ruling from the state’s highest court conflicts with case law established in other courts, including U.S. Supreme Court precedent.
“The Excessive Fines Clause was built for cases like this,” they said.
Alaska’s attorneys said Jouppi hasn’t shown how punishing him with forfeiture of his plane is “grossly disproportional to the gravity of his offense.”
“Alcohol abuse is a serious problem in rural Alaska, and airplanes are sometimes the only realistic means to commit the crime of alcohol importation,” they wrote.
