Asset Forfeiture and the Destruction of American Liberty
For centuries, it has been an established tenet of Western jurisprudence that a person cannot be punished for a crime unless the government first convicts him of the crime in a court of law. After the Constitution called the federal government into existence, our...
Study Shows Police Lying About Asset Forfeiture
Law enforcement lobbyists always oppose asset forfeiture reform, generally relying on the claim that seizing people’s stuff serves as a valuable crime-fighting tool. But a recent study conducted by a Seattle University economist for the Institute of Justice...
A History of Civil Asset Forfeiture in America
by Brittany Hunter Civil asset forfeiture has become a widely-recognized term, largely because of the long train of abuses that has been brought to the public’s attention over the last several years. Though few actually know from whence this practice originated, many...