Plus the history of zoning on new podcast. | View in browser
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Excessive Fines
Timbs v. Indiana: The Fight Against Excessive Fines Five Years Later
On February 20, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court held for the first time that the Constitution's ban against excessive fines applies to states and cities as well as the federal government. In the half-decade since, IJ has worked tirelessly to protect Americans from outrageous fines for minor offenses. From a $100,000 fine for parking on your own property to "fines that aren't really fines," here are the highs and lows of that fight.
IJ’s Project on the Fourth Amendment strives to safeguard one of America’s core founding principles: the right to be secure in our persons and property. That means two basic things. First, if the government wants to search or seize your property, it generally has to get a warrant or your consent. And second, once the government is done with your seized property, it must give it back. Yet New Jersey has been secretly keeping blood from every baby in the state and storing it for 23 years.
California’s License to Read Belongs in the Junk Folder
Like most Americans, Jay Fink hates spam email. That’s why, about a decade ago, Jay started a business to help his fellow Californians stand up to malicious and deceptive spammers. But California has branded him a criminal, saying Jay is acting as an unlicensed private investigator. So, Jay teamed up with IJ to fight back.
In 1926, the Supreme Court upheld zoning, giving elected officials and city planners vast, new, and largely unchecked power to tell people what they can and cannot do with their property. The story of the lawsuit that changed everything and the personalities who made it happen.
We’re joined by the SCOTUS Ladies, “Supreme Court super fans” Anastasia Boden and Elizabeth Slattery. They talk about their new blogging project, the Constitution, public interest litigation, and even the federal courts of appeals.
The Ninth Circuit had some harsh words for the FBI’s egregious behavior when the Bureau decided to crack open some vaults in LA and forfeit all kinds of property from innocent owners. Then it’s off to the Second Circuit for a different kind of police misconduct.
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