Supreme Court will review Alaska's bid to seize pilot's plane over 6-pack of beer: "This case isn't just about me" - CBS News

What the report says

CBS News reported that the U.S. Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear Alaska bush pilot Kenneth Jouppi’s challenge to the state’s effort to forfeit his 1969 Cessna after a passenger brought a six-pack of beer onto a flight headed to Beaver, a dry village in rural Alaska. Jouppi argues that taking the aircraft, described in the report as worth $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 incident in Fairbanks, where state troopers searched Jouppi’s plane before departure and found Budweiser packed in a passenger’s shopping bag with 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 his company; Jouppi received a three-day jail sentence.

Alaska’s Supreme Court ruled in 2025 that forfeiting the plane would not be an excessive fine under state criminal forfeiture laws. Jouppi’s lawyers at the Institute for Justice told the U.S. Supreme Court the Alaska ruling did not properly account for whether his conduct was part of any broader criminal pattern. Alaska’s attorney general’s office countered that the state court applied a standard proportionality test and that rural alcohol importation is a serious concern, with aircraft sometimes central to that offense.

The Supreme Court’s review could clarify how courts should measure whether property forfeiture is grossly disproportionate to an offense. As CBS noted, at least four justices must vote to grant review before a case is added to the court’s docket.