SCOTUS adds excessive fine case to its 2026-27 docket.
Kenneth J. Jouppi v. Alaska, USSC No. 25-246, certiorari granted 7/20/26
SCOTUS will consider an Alaska bush pilot’s case seeking to prevent the State of Alaska from forfeiting his plane because he attempted to transport beer to a dry village.
The Village of Beaver, Alaska prohibits importing, selling, or possessing alcohol in the community. Kenneth Jouppi, who operated an air taxi company, was convicted of transporting three cases of beer by airplane from Fairbanks to Beaver (although law enforcement seized the beer before the plane left Fairbanks) and ordered to forfeit his airplane, which was valued at $95,000. The Alaska Supreme Court held that forfeiture of the plane was not grossly disproportionate to the gravity of the offense and therefore did not violate the Excessive Fines Clause of the Eighth Amendment.
Jouppi asked SCOTUS to grant certiorari on the following question: “whether, in determining whether a fine contravenes the Excessive Fines Clause, courts may consider the gravity of the underlying offense purely in the abstract or should consider the gravity of the specific defendant’s wrongdoing.”
SCOTUS granted certiorari on July 20, 2026, and added the case to its 2026-27 docket.
Decision below: Jouppi v. Alaska, 566 P.3d 943 (Ak. 2025)