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When local government bureaucrats act like tyrants — and average Joes pay the price

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Imagine getting a bill from your local government for $900,000 because they see a greenhouse on your property and just assume you’re growing marijuana without a permit.

Imagine government demanding $400,000 because you didn’t know to fill out a single-page form.

Or getting slapped with a $100,000 fine for parking your car . . . on your own property.

It sounds absurd, but it’s really happening.

How can that be? Doesn’t America’s Constitution say government may not impose “excessive fines”?

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It happens because some bureaucrats, savoring their power, act like tyrants.

At least now there is hope for a remedy: One of these excessive-fine cases has reached the Supreme Court.

Ken Jouppi worked as a pilot in Alaska for 30 years, until one day state troopers stopped his plane before takeoff.

“I didn’t think we had anything to hide,” he said.

“They searched the airplane, opened up this lady’s boxes of groceries and found beer.”

Transporting beer. That was his........

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