Court Opinion

ID: 9481898
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 08:34:46.402517+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:48:38.617195
License: Public Domain

NOONAN, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I am troubled by the measure that the court uses to determine if the $500 assessment bears a reasonable relation to the government’s expense. The government maintains that the amount is trivial in light of the expense required to maintain a system of customs inspection. No doubt it is. But why should a pro rata share of the customs inspection system be a measure? There would be no customs inspection system without the Department of the Treasury. Should not a pro rata share of Treasury expense be the measure? There would be no Treasury without the government as a whole. Should not a pro rata share of the expense of the government as a whole be the measure? These questions suggest how a pro rata share of the actual expense of setting up the structure which led to Walker’s detection could lead to the justification of astronomical fines. $500 is trivial in relation to a pro rata share of the expense of the Treasury or the government; so are $5,000 or $50,000 or $500,000. In short, pro rata share of the expense gives the government an essentially arbitrary choice as to the system whose expense is shared and a virtual blank check as to the amount it can assess. Such unlimited discretion to determine the amount that may be imposed points to the punitive rather than the compensatory character of the fine assessed. United States v. Halper, 490 U.S. 435, 109 S.Ct. 1892, 1902, 104 L.Ed.2d 487 (1989) requires reversal of Walker’s conviction.
I respectfully dissent.