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You Op To Know: Student Life columnist discusses local impact of excessive fines ruling

Welcome to You Op to Know, The Daily Orange Opinion section’s weekly podcast.  

This week, Assistant Editorial Editor Michael Sessa and Student Life columnist Jack Mettler discuss some of the local impacts of a recent Supreme Court ruling on excessive fines.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to submit a letter to the editor at opinion@dailyorange.com.

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TRANSCRIPT

SESSA: Welcome to this week’s edition of You Op To Know, The Daily Orange’s Opinion section podcast. I’m Assistant Editorial Editor Michael Sessa and this week I’m joined by our Student Life columnist Jack Mettler.

METTLER: Thank you so much for having me.

SESSA: Yeah. Tonight we’re going to talk about some of the local impacts of a recent Supreme Court ruling on excessive fines. What was this case about, what was the ruling, and why do you think students should know about it?

METTLER: So basically the ruling started after Tyson Timbs, an Indiana resident, sued the state for the seizure of his $42,000 Land Rover. So he basically sold a couple hundred dollars worth of drugs, got arrested for it, and then due to him not being able to pay that fine, he got his Land Rover, his SUV, $42,000 worth, seized. He took that to court, and they didn’t give him back his vehicle, but they ruled that according to the Eighth Amendment, it was unjust and that he would get another ruling in court. So basically the Eighth Amendment is not allowing excessive fines, and the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that it applies to both state and local government, not just federal government.

SESSA: One of the professors you talked to for your column said that some grassroots movement is needed to actually make the ruling worthwhile. So what sorts of actions do people moving through the court system need to take?

METTLER: So basically the professor said this won’t completely resolve the issue. The government still has, the state government still has the incentive to fine people for minor incidents. So, in order to use this ruling to one’s advantage, you have to find lawyers, resources to be able to combat and go up against these rulings and show how excessive they are, to show that it violates the Eighth Amendment. So it’ll have to be enacted through your own resources. It won’t just happen automatically.

SESSA: You closed your column by arguing that there’s still some stuff to be done in this space. What other changes would you like to see in the future, and how could that be beneficial for students or local community members?

METTLER: I think more rulings to help completely eliminate excessive fines. So this ruling, it doesn’t completely eliminate disproportionate fines. It only kind of lowers the incentive, but there still is obviously incentive for these government officials to fine them as it goes to their pockets. So, just look out for more rulings on this matter I would say, other than this is a step in the right direction.

SESSA: Cool. Thanks for joining us. And as always, if you have any comments, questions, or if want to send a letter to the editor, you can email us at opinion@dailyorange.com. We’ll see you next week! 

METTLER: Thank you so much for having me.

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