Alaska wants to seize a pilot’s plane over a 6-pack of beer. The Supreme Court will hear his case. - NBC News

What the report says

NBC News, publishing an Associated Press report, says the U.S. Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear Alaska bush pilot Kenneth Jouppi’s challenge to the state’s effort to forfeit his airplane after a passenger brought beer onto a flight headed to a dry village. Jouppi argues that seizing his 1969 Cessna, valued in the report at $95,000, would violate the Eighth Amendment’s ban on excessive fines. Arguments are expected in the fall.

The case stems from an April 2012 planned flight from Fairbanks to Beaver, a remote Alaska community where alcohol was banned. According to the AP account, state troopers searched the plane before takeoff and found a six-pack of Budweiser in a shopping bag among a passenger’s groceries. Jouppi, his company and the passenger were charged with knowingly transporting alcohol into a dry community. The passenger pleaded guilty, while a jury convicted Jouppi and the company; Jouppi received a three-day jail sentence.

The Alaska Supreme Court sided with the state, finding the plane subject to criminal forfeiture. Jouppi’s lawyers at the Institute for Justice contend the state court failed to properly consider whether the forfeiture was grossly disproportionate or whether his conduct was part of broader criminal activity. Alaska’s attorney general’s office urged the justices to leave the ruling intact, describing the state decision as fact-specific and arguing that alcohol importation is a serious issue in rural Alaska, where aircraft can be central to such offenses.

The Supreme Court’s review could clarify how courts measure forfeitures against the Excessive Fines Clause, particularly when property far exceeds the value of the contraband involved.