The term “excessive fine” is understandable. Unless you are a member of the Indiana Supreme Court. Then, in the context of civil asset forfeiture, the term becomes an enigma to be parsed in three dozen pages of ridiculous legal logic that even one of the five justices confessed he could not comprehend.
An Indiana civil forfeiture case that made its way to the United States Supreme Court will now return to the Grant Superior Court after the Indiana Supreme Court developed a framework for determining if the forfeiture of property is excessive under the Eighth Amendment.
The Rush County prosecutor will be allowed to keep $22,907 in cash seized from a local marijuana dealer’s home safe that also contained his weed stash, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled Thursday, but the state will have to return some seized property and also may have to return the man’s truck.
For the third time in three years, Marion resident Tyson Timbs took his case before a Supreme Court. The man whose name became noted civil forfeiture caselaw said after arguments Friday, “I feel like I stand for something now.”
The practice of diverting civil forfeiture proceeds away from the Common School Fund to reimburse law enforcement costs is constitutional under Article 8, Section 2 of the Indiana Constitution, the Indiana Supreme Court has ruled, answering the longstanding question of whether the constitution requires all forfeiture proceeds to go to the Common School Fund.
The Indiana Supreme Court has upheld the seizure of $60,000 in cash believed to be drug money, finding the officer who intercepted the parcel holding the cash had probable cause to think the package was related to drug trafficking. The unanimous ruling also upholds the turnover of the cash to the federal government, though it doesn’t address whether the money will be forfeited. The Court of Appeals previously had ruled the seizure was unlawful.
The state must pay back more than $77,000 to a man after seizing cash from his vehicle, the Indiana Court of Appeals has ruled, finding the money was unlawfully seized and turned over to the federal government.
The Indiana Court of Appeals grappled with a case Tuesday dealing with a cash seizure and turnover after a traffic stop, getting stuck on whether the state’s arguments of standing were presented on appeal for the first time.
Questions of whether probable cause existed for law enforcement to seize more than $60,000 in cash from a FedEx package were heard before the Indiana Supreme Court on Thursday, with an attorney for the state urging justices to overturn recent precedent to allow the seizure.
Take your pick from the political spectrum: Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Clarence Thomas each wrote eloquently in rejecting the Indiana Supreme Court’s tortured logic in an extreme civil forfeiture case. Thank goodness.
The US Supreme Court decision in a landmark Indiana civil forfeiture case ruled that the Eighth Amendment Excessive Fines Clause is incorporated to the states, but Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s opinion declined to answer one key question: When does the Eighth Amendment prohibit civil forfeiture?
In another dispute in an Indiana civil forfeiture case, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals has denied issuing an opinion on a district court ruling that found parts of the state statute unconstitutional, finding the lower court was not given a chance to address the state’s effort to fix the problem.
The Eighth Amendment’s protection against excessive fines has been incorporated to the states via the 14th Amendment, the Supreme Court of the United States has unanimously ruled in deciding an Indiana civil forfeiture case that posed the question.
Indiana Lawyer’s top story of 2018 began inside an Indianapolis bar in the cool early-morning hours of Thursday, March 15. Attorney General Curtis Hill had had a few drinks. A few too many, several witnesses would later claim.
Marion resident Tyson Timbs never expected to be the face of civil forfeiture reform at the United States Supreme Court. Several times during his five-year legal battle, Timbs wanted to throw in the towel. Sometimes, all he wanted was to put his past trouble with the law behind him. But he also said he wanted to fight against what he views as widespread unjust civil forfeiture practices.
WASHINGTON — The grandeur and history of the United States Supreme Court stood in stark contrast to the small-town Indiana roots of a potentially landmark civil forfeiture case federal justices heard Wednesday.
An Indiana case that could decide whether the Eighth Amendment protection against excessive fines applies to the states will be heard at the United States Supreme Court on Wednesday.
Contrary readings of Article 8, Section 2 of the Indiana Constitution and its implication on Indiana’s civil forfeiture statute were at issue Thursday when the Indiana Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case brought by the Virginia-based Institute for Justice.
Justices to hear oral argument on civil forfeiture case, two othersThe Indiana Supreme Court will hear oral argument in three cases on Thursday, including a case dealing with the distribution of civil forfeiture proceeds.
The Indiana Court of Appeals has upheld the admission of evidence found during the warrantless search of a convicted drug felon’s vehicle, finding the search did not violate the man’s state constitutional rights.