{"id":639875,"date":"2026-07-23T00:55:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T00:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=639875"},"modified":"2026-07-23T00:55:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T00:55:00","slug":"supreme-court-to-decide-if-plane-can-be-seized-over-6-pack-of-beer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/?p=639875","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court To Decide If Plane Can Be Seized Over 6-Pack Of Beer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Supreme Court To Decide If Plane Can Be Seized Over 6-Pack Of Beer<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times,<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The U.S. Supreme Court on July 20 agreed to hear the appeal of an Alaska pilot whose small airplane was seized for attempting to haul beer into a so-called dry jurisdiction where alcohol is banned.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The court\u2019s decision in Jouppi v. Alaska took the form of an unsigned order<\/a>. No justices dissented. The court did not explain its decision.<\/p>\n

The aircraft was subject to a legal process known as civil asset forfeiture, under which property, including a vehicle, that was used to commit a crime is deemed an instrument of the crime and can be seized.<\/p>\n

Civil libertarians and those subject to asset forfeitures arising from criminal convictions\u2014in addition to cases in which a person is merely suspected of a crime\u2014have long complained that the practice can be arbitrary and excessive.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The petitioner, bush pilot Ken Jouppi, argues that Alaska\u2019s plan to forfeit his 1969 Cessna after he unknowingly in 2012 carried beer stowed in a passenger\u2019s luggage to Beaver, a village that bans beverage alcohol, violates the Eighth Amendment\u2019s prohibition against excessive fines. The state temporarily seized the plane, valued at about $95,000, but it was later returned to him pending the final disposition of the case.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jouppi said he was familiar with Alaska\u2019s dry village system and that he would not intentionally carry alcohol illegally, but that he does not search passengers\u2019 luggage to look for alcohol. No law required such a search, and besides, doing so would be \u201cinvasive and demeaning,\u201d his attorneys at the Institute for Justice, a public interest law firm, said in his petition<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The passenger was carrying Budweiser and Bud Light to give to her husband, who worked in Beaver.<\/strong> As Jouppi loaded the aircraft, state troopers searched it and discovered the beer, saying that at least a six-pack of Budweiser could be seen in a shopping bag.<\/p>\n

The state filed charges against Jouppi, his company, and the passenger for the misdemeanor of knowingly carrying alcohol into a dry community. The passenger pled guilty. Jouppi and his company went to trial and were convicted by a state jury. He was sentenced to 180 days in jail with 177 days suspended, along with a $3,000 fine with $1,500 of it suspended, and a term of three years of probation, according to the petition.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The trial court first ruled that the forfeiture of the plane was not allowed under state law because at the time of the offense it hadn\u2019t arrived in Beaver, so the alcohol could not be considered to have been transported there. The Alaska Court of Appeals reversed, finding that the state law required forfeiture \u201cregardless of whether the alcoholic beverages are actually transported toward their destination.\u201d<\/p>\n

The case returned to the trial court, which then ruled that the forfeiture constituted an unconstitutionally excessive fine. The state appealed, and the appeals court reversed. Then the Alaska Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the forfeiture was constitutional \u201cas a matter of law.\u201d<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s dry-community law was enacted to combat alcohol abuse statewide, and the Alaska Legislature \u201cdetermined that the harm from even a six-pack of beer knowingly imported into a dry village is severe enough to warrant forfeiture of an aircraft,\u201d the Alaska Supreme Court held.<\/p>\n

The forfeiture of the plane was \u201cnot grossly disproportional to the gravity of the offense for which [Jouppi] has been convicted and, therefore, the forfeiture does not violate\u201d the Eighth Amendment, that court ruled.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jouppi\u2019s lawyers urged the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the case, saying the Alaska Supreme Court incorrectly emphasized the gravity of the offense, as opposed to the actual conduct of the defendant. The state high court\u2019s standard is also at odds with precedents in its home federal circuit, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the petition said.<\/p>\n

By contrast, Alaska urged the nation\u2019s highest court not to take up the case.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Alaska Supreme Court\u2019s decision was correct and adhered to existing precedent, the state said in a brief<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That court found that Jouppi saw the alcohol in the cargo and that his \u201cgeneral policy of willful blindness weighs against him,\u201d and also that he failed to show that forfeiture would be \u201cunconstitutionally excessive.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously found<\/a> that a constitutional ban on excessive fines, which Indiana had argued applies only to the federal government, applies to all U.S. states.<\/p>\n

The decision overturned a ruling by the Indiana Supreme Court that the state was entitled to keep a 2012 Land Rover LR2 valued at $42,000 that was confiscated from Tyson Timbs.<\/p>\n

Timbs had used the vehicle when selling a total of $385 worth of heroin to undercover police, a crime for which he was convicted. He entered a guilty plea and was sentenced to a year of house arrest and five years of probation, but no prison time.<\/p>\n

The new case is expected to be heard in the Supreme Court\u2019s term that begins in October. A decision is likely to follow by June or July 2027.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nWed, 07\/22\/2026 – 20:55<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Supreme Court To Decide If Plane Can Be Seized Over 6-Pack Of Beer Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times, The U.S. Supreme Court on July 20 agreed to hear the appeal of an Alaska pilot whose small airplane was seized for attempting to haul beer into a so-called dry jurisdiction where alcohol is… Continue reading Supreme Court To Decide If Plane Can Be Seized Over 6-Pack Of Beer<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":639876,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,22,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-639875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-border-security","category-immigration","category-immigration-reform","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=639875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/639876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=639875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=639875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buglecall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=639875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}