Unlikely Ally Ruth Bader Ginsburg Could Save Trump $355M

Amid former President Donald Trump's scramble to secure bond in the multi-million dollar judgment against him in New York, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee might look to the unlikeliest of figures for legal aid from the late, and famously liberal, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Ginsburg delivered the high court's opinion in Timbs v. Indiana on Feb. 20, 2019, in which she laid out how the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on excessive fines applies to the states as well as the federal government.

In that case, Indiana police had seized Tyson Timbs' Land Rover SUV, which he had purchased for $42,000 with money he received from a life insurance policy when his father died. After Timbs pleaded guilty to drug dealing and conspiracy to commit theft, he was fined $10,000 and the state sought civil forfeiture of the vehicle. The judge ruled that taking the vehicle was an excessive fine because it was worth four times the penalty and excessive fines are prohibited by the Constitution's Eighth Amendment.