United States v. Bajakajian

United States v. Bajakajian
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued November 4, 1997 Decided June 22, 1998
Full case name	United States v. Hosep Krikor Bajakajian
Citations	524 U.S. 321 (more) 118 S. Ct. 2028; 141 L. Ed. 2d 314; 1998 U.S. LEXIS 4172; 66 U.S.L.W. 4514; 98 Cal. Daily Op. Service 4757; 98 Daily Journal DAR 6736; 1998 Colo. J. C.A.R. 3239; 11 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. S 662
Case history
Prior	Forfeiture order affirmed, 84 F.3d 334 (9th Cir. 1996); cert. granted, 520 U.S. 1239 (1997).
Holding
Forfeiture of $357,144 for violation of 31 U.S.C. § 5316, requiring reporting of all international movements of currency with value over $10,000, violates the Eighth Amendment's Excessive Fines clause.
Court membership
Chief Justice William Rehnquist Associate Justices John P. Stevens · Sandra Day O'Connor Antonin Scalia · Anthony Kennedy David Souter · Clarence Thomas Ruth Bader Ginsburg · Stephen Breyer
Case opinions
Majority	Thomas, joined by Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg, Breyer
Dissent	Kennedy, joined by Rehnquist, O'Connor, Scalia
Laws applied
U.S. Const. Amend. VIII; 18 U.S.C. § 982(a); 31 U.S.C. §§ 5316(a)(1)(A), 5322(a)

United States v. Bajakajian, 524 U.S. 321 (1998), is a U.S. Supreme Court case holding that asset forfeiture is unconstitutional when it is "grossly disproportional to the gravity of the defendant’s offense", citing the Excessive Fines clause of the Eighth Amendment.^[1] It was the first time the Court struck down the federal government's "aggressive use of forfeiture"^[2] and the only time it has held that an imposed fine was unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment.