Supreme Court delivers pivotal victory for asset forfeiture challenge

[hlat]

Supreme Court delivers pivotal victory for asset forfeiture challenge

Supreme Court delivers pivotal victory for asset forfeiture challenge -- Sott.net

States are bound by the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against excessive fines and fees when they seek to seize property or other assets from individuals charged or convicted of a crime, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Wednesday. It's...

www.sott.net

The Supreme Court issuing a decision to protect the people? Seems to be a pretty solid victory for the people. Is there any nefarious agenda? The only thing that comes to mind is that it is limiting state power, to further subjugate states to federal authority, eg Supreme Court. The Bill of Rights (first ten amendments to the Constitution) specifically reserved all power for the states, so the Supreme Court used the 14th amendment (not part of the Bill of Rights) as a backdoor to claim federal dominion over the states.

 

[Beau]

The Supreme Court issuing a decision to protect the people? Seems to be a pretty solid victory for the people. Is there any nefarious agenda? The only thing that comes to mind is that it is limiting state power, to further subjugate states to federal authority, eg Supreme Court.

I dunno, seems like a really good thing for people. The court ruled that states and cities have to follow the same rules as the federal government when it comes to constitutional limits on excessive fines. They ruled that the Eighth Amendment's ban on excessive fines being imposed applies to — or, is incorporated against — the states. This is what RBG wrote:

"The right to be free from excessive fines is stated in sources ranging from the Magna Carta to the English Bill of Rights to state constitutions from the found era to the present day," Ginsburg said. "And for good reason. Exorbitant tolls undermine other constitutional liberties."

"In short, the historical and logical case for concluding that the Fourteenth Amendment incorporates the Excessive Fines Clause is overwhelming," Ginsburg wrote for the US Supreme Court. "Protection against excessive punitive economic sanctions secured by the Clause is, to repeat, both 'fundamental to our scheme of ordered liberty' and 'deeply rooted in this Nation's history and tradition.'"

And from Neil Gorsuch:

"But nothing in this case turns on that question, and, regardless of the precise vehicle, there can be no serious doubt that the Fourteenth Amendment requires the States to respect the freedom from excessive fines enshrined in the Eighth Amendment," Gorsuch wrote.

I don't see this as an issue with the federal gov't working towards limiting state power, but rather federal intervention into states that have been behaving in ways that are against what the Constitution and its amendments have outlined as proper behavior towards the people according to Constitutional Law.