High Court to rule on Alaska seizing pilot's plane over six beers

Ken Jouppi's 1969 Cessna sits in legal jeopardy after a passenger allegedly stashed a six-pack of Budweiser aboard a flight into a dry village — Jouppi says he had no idea.

The Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear Jouppi v. Alaska, a civil forfeiture case out of the state's dry-village alcohol prohibition regime.
Alaska authorities moved to seize Jouppi's 1969 Cessna on grounds that his aircraft was used to transport illegal alcohol into a village where beer is banned.
The contraband in question: one six-pack of Budweiser, allegedly carried by a passenger.
Jouppi denies any knowledge of the alcohol and has contested the forfeiture as a violation of the Eighth Amendment's excessive fines clause.
The case is among the first SCOTUS term additions for the court's October 2026 docket.

The Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear a challenge from an Alaskan bush pilot who stands to lose his 1969 Cessna over a six-pack of Budweiser.

Ken Jouppi flew a passenger into a dry village — one of dozens across rural Alaska where local ordinance prohibits the importation of alcohol. Authorities allege the passenger carried the beer aboard. Jouppi says he did not know it was there.

The state moved to permanently seize the aircraft under Alaska's civil forfeiture statutes, which allow the government to take property used in the commission of a liquor violation regardless of the owner's knowledge or intent.

Jouppi's attorneys have argued the forfeiture constitutes an excessive fine under the Eighth Amendment, a theory the Supreme Court has been sharpening since its 2019 ruling in Timbs v. Indiana, which applied the clause to the states.

The case, formally docketed as Jouppi v. Alaska, is expected to be argued during the October 2026 term. A ruling could set limits on how aggressively states may pursue civil forfeiture when the property owner claims ignorance of the underlying offense.

The 1969 Cessna's current assessed value does not appear in the certiorari petition. The Budweiser's retail price does not either.