forfeited for a six-pack.”
The Supreme Court has had a number of opportunities in recent years to consider questions about what constitutes an excessive fine but has resolved those appeals on narrower grounds.
In late June, a unanimous court allowed a Michigan family to continue fighting a county’s decision to sell its home for $76,008 at public auction even though the property was assessed at more than $194,000. But that decision skirted the broader constitutional questions the case had raised about excessive fines.
Critics, including the libertarian Cato Institute, hope the court will use the case to limit what it has described as abuses of forfeiture laws.
“Billions of dollars have been generated for the government through civil and criminal forfeitures,” the group told the Supreme Court in a brief last year. “And because it is expensive and time-consuming for defendants to challenge forfeitures in court, successfully asserting Eighth Amendment rights is difficult.”
This story has been updated with additional details.
