Jouppi v. Alaska

Juvenile Law Center, along with our partners the Youth Sentencing and Reentry Project and Ubuntu Village submitted an amicus brief on behalf of Mr. Kenneth Jouppi on his Excessive Fines Clause challenge in the United States Supreme Court. Mr. Jouppi is an Alaskan bush pilot, who was arrested because one of his passengers tried to bring beer into a dry town. Mr. Jouppi’s $95,000 airplane was seized as penalty, and he is challenging the forfeiture as an excessive fine under the Eighth Amendment. Mr. Jouppi’s case considers whether, in determining that a fine contravenes the excessive fines clause, courts should consider the gravity of the specific defendant’s wrongdoing.

Juvenile Law Center’s amicus brief explains that an Eighth Amendment excessive fines standard that requires courts to consider a specific defendant’s circumstances best aligns with the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence on youth and will allow courts to appropriately consider the salient characteristics of youth and their diminished culpability in determining whether a fine is excessive. While Mr. Jouppi is not a young person, Juvenile Law Center believes that the issues raised by this case have profound implications for young people caught in the justice system given the widespread practice of juvenile justice system fines and the unique harms of charging kids for justice system involvement.
 

LEGAL TEAM

Attorneys

Nadia Mozaffar, Jessica Feierman

Paralegals

Spencer Symula