Gorsuch fans are going to enjoy today’s SCOTUS arguments over civil asset forfeiture. When the Indiana Solicitor General said the Excessive Fines Clause doesn’t apply to the states, Gorsuch looked incredulous and said: “Come on, General. Really?!”
Gorsuch then told the Indiana SG that he was going to lose, and if he kept arguing the merits, he’d lose even worse. Then he and Sotomayor teamed up to say he was defending a “star chamber.”
So, yeah, SCOTUS is going to apply the Excessive Fines Clause to the states, and probably do so in a way that limits civil asset forfeiture. Gorsuch was smiling like the cat that caught the canary.
I wrote about this: slate.com/news-and-polit…
