Jurisprudence
July 28, 20264:19 PM
Photo illustration by Slate. Photos by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images, Jerry Cleveland/The Denver Post via Getty Images, and Etienne Laurent/AFP via Getty Images.
The state of Alaska has spent the past 14 years trying to confiscate an 82-year-old bush pilot’s $95,000 airplane because a passenger packed a six-pack of Budweiser with her groceries.
That sentence is not a simplification. It is the whole case. And last week, the Supreme Court agreed to hear it, which means the justices will finally have to answer a question they have been dodging for decades: Does the Eighth Amendment’s ban on excessive fines actually stop the government from taking anything?
