Ashley Murray
/
States Newsroom
The U.S. Supreme Court will consider whether or not to overrule the state of Alaska’s decision to seize the airplane of a bush pilot who flew a bootlegger and beer to a dry village in 2012.
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to take up an appeal brought by the libertarian-leaning nonprofit public interest law firm Institute for Justice on behalf of the pilot, Ken Jouppi.
The Institute is arguing for an interpretation of the U.S. Constitution’s Excessive Fines Clause, saying that judges should be able to weigh what a specific criminal defendant did instead of just relying on the language of a law.
The state of Alaska, opposing the appeal, is defending the existing interpretation of the clause, which states in part that “judgments about the appropriate punishment for an offense belong in the first instance to the legislature.”
A ruling for Jouppi could give judges nationwide more flexibility when sentencing criminal cases.
“It would require that judges evaluate what the person before them did, rather than just have a one-size-fits-all understanding of what a specific crime is, based on a worst-case scenario of what that defendant might have done,” said IJ Attorney Mike Greenberg.
Thousands of cases are appealed to the Supreme Court each year; Jouppi’s will become one of about 30 that the court is expected to hear between October and December.
Jouppi’s particular case involves a flight he planned when he was an air taxi operator in Fairbanks.
In 2012, Jouppi was planning to fly to Beaver, a dry town in the Interior, with the spouse of the postmaster as a passenger.
Before takeoff, an Alaska State Trooper noticed a six-pack of beer visible in the baggage. Troopers searched the plane and found three cases of beer — two Budweiser, one Bud Light — intended for the postmaster.
Jouppi was indicted for bootlegging, convicted and sentenced. His sentence included three days in jail and a fine. State prosecutors asked that he be required to forfeit his plane, but the trial judge declined.
The state appealed that decision and after several rounds of appeals, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled in 2025 that the state’s seizure of Jouppi’s plane was not an excessive fine. Justices wrote that the harm caused by alcohol in rural Alaska is so great that severe punishment is not disproportionate.
Jouppi and his attorneys had argued — and continue to argue — that because Jouppi was aware of only one six-pack of beer, any fines should be based on that amount, rather than all the cases aboard the plane.
The Institute for Justice appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court in September 2025, but justices declined for almost a year to decide whether or not to hear the case fully.
A supplementary brief filed in June indicates the justices were waiting for a decision on another case.
Monday’s order granting Jouppi’s “petition for a writ of certiorari” — a formal document asking the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the issue — was issued without comment explaining why the justices want to consider it.
Under court rules, four justices must vote to take up an appeal in order for it to appear before the court.
