Ginsburg delivered the high court's opinion in Timbs v. Indiana on Feb. 20, 2019, in which she laid out how the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on excessive fines applies to the states as well as the federal government.
The judge ruled that taking the vehicle was an excessive fine because it was worth four times the penalty and excessive fines are prohibited by the Constitution's Eighth Amendment.
The ruling was upheld by the Court of Appeals, but the Indiana Supreme Court overturned it on the grounds that the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on excessive fines only applies to the federal government and not to the states.
In a unanimous decision, the U.S. Supreme Court said that it does, in fact, bind the states as well."The Excessive Fines Clause traces its venerable lineage back to at least 1215," Ginsburg wrote. "Magna Carta required that economic sanctions 'be proportioned to the wrong' and 'not be so large as to deprive [an offender] of his livelihood.'"
"For good reason, the protection against excessive fines has been a constant shield throughout Anglo-American history: Exorbitant tolls undermine other constitutional liberties," she wrote. "Excessive fines can be used, for example, to retaliate against or chill the speech of political enemies."
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