Timbs v. Indiana
United States Supreme Court
139 S. Ct. 682 (2019)
Police seized Tyson Timbs's (defendant) $42,000 Land Rover, purchased with life-insurance proceeds, after charging him with drug dealing and claiming the vehicle had transported heroin; the trial court refused to order the vehicle forfeited to Indiana, finding forfeiture grossly disproportionate to the $10,000 maximum fine his conviction carried, and the appellate court affirmed, but the Indiana Supreme Court reversed, reasoning the Excessive Fines Clause didn't apply to the states. Timbs appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Whether the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause incorporates to the states those constitutional protections fundamental to ordered liberty and deeply rooted in history and tradition.