Tag: State Rights

by Tate Fegley   There is a case – Timbs v. Indiana – currently before the United States Supreme Court regarding civil asset forfeiture and whether the excessive fines clause of the 8th Amendment also applies to the states due to the 14th Amendment’s incorporation clause. The petitioner is Tyson Timbs, who became addicted to the opioid hydrocodone after having received a prescription for his foot pain. After his prescription had run out, he bought it from a dealer. After his dealer had run out, he was persuaded to try heroin as a substitute and became addicted. He eventually overcame his addiction but relapsed around the time of his father’s death. Timbs received $73,000 from his father’s life insurance policy and used $42,000 of it to buy a 2012 Land Rover. Wanting to make money to fund his habit, he was convinced by a confidential informant to deal heroin. He made two deals with undercover narcotics agents (each deal for two grams) and, on his way to the third deal, was pulled over and arrested. His Land Rover was seized on the spot. Timbs was charged with two counts of dealing in a controlled substance and one count of conspiracy…