Hopkins v. Oklahoma Public Employees Retirement System

EBEL, Circuit Judge.

This case presents the question whether a state’s forfeiture of more than two-thirds of a retired state employee’s pension, as a result of the employee’s conviction for bribery after the employee has begun to collect his pension, violates either the Fifth or Eighth Amendments to the United States Constitution. We hold that the forfeiture is not unconstitutional under the Double Jeopardy Clause because of the doctrine of dual sovereigns, nor is it unconstitutional under the Excessive Fines Clause because, under Oklahoma law, the employee had not acquired a vested property…