Civil forfeiture laws

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case on civil forfeiture laws.  Here is how civil forfeiture laws work–actual case.  Tyson Timbs, an Indiana resident, was a drug addict.  He received about $73,000 from a life insurance policy when his father died, bought a Land Rover for $42,000, and blew the rest on drugs.  

He was caught in a drug sale in which $225 had changed hands.  He pleaded guilty, was sentenced to a year of house arrest, and had to pay fees and fines of about $1200.  Indiana also took the Land Rover.

Here is what Justice Clarence Thomas has said about civil forfeiture laws.  “Forfeiture has in recent decades become widespread and highly profitable.  And because the law enforcement entity responsible for seeing the property often keeps it, these entities have strong incentives to pursue forfeiture.  This system–where police can seize property with limited judicial oversight and retain it for their own use–has led to egregious and well-chronicled abuses.”  

Headline in today’s Morning Call:  “Northampton County rakes in drug forfeitures.”  The D.A., John Morganelli, a man with no scruples, announced that the County had seized a record $280,907 in cash, plus 10 vehicles to auction off just this year.  This is a bad system that has nothing to do with justice.

By the way, the coalition that is suing to stop civil forfeiture includes the ACLU and Americans for Prosperity, the Koch Brothers organization.  Now there is a coalition.