Civil Forfieture. WTF.

Good news from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court:

In a unanimous, 73-page opinion, the court found that although authorities have the right to seize property used in illegal enterprises, they must prove that the owner not only was aware of the illegal activity but also had agreed to it. The court also found that property seizures may breach the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against excessive fines if the seizure is “grossly disproportional” to the underlying offense.​
 
It's Baaaaaaaaaacccckkkk!!!!!

Time: Jeff Sessions Wants Cops to Seize More Money From Suspected Criminals
Canadian Reporting on it: US restoring asset seizures - with safeguards

F'n hell. I think the "safeguards" are a load of crap. This whole thing is a load of crap. Seize evidence at time of arrest. It's evidence until conviction. If the charges are dropped (or never filed within 48 hours, or whatever the requirement is), anything not by definition illegal (ie: drugs are still confiscated) is returned. FULL STOP.

If you read comments below articles on various sites, there is nobody that wants this, no matter how right or left-wing. This is apparently cops-only that want their funding, or something.


Any efforts to get this thing ENTIRELY thrown out via SCOTUS or something? This seems like a very open-and-shut good case for the constitutional literalists to get a win that the public LIKES.
 

You knew this was going to happen, and you still voted to confirm him, asshole.
I'm not doubting your statement, I'm just curious where Sessions had said he was going to do this prior to getting confirmed. Was it part of the confirmation hearings? There's a lot of "noise" out there right now, so if you can throw me a link, that'd be awesome.
 
I'm not doubting your statement, I'm just curious where Sessions had said he was going to do this prior to getting confirmed. Was it part of the confirmation hearings? There's a lot of "noise" out there right now, so if you can throw me a link, that'd be awesome.
Here's one at random from a fairly large pool: Jeff Sessions Loves Asset Forfeiture. Will Congress Grill Him at His Confirmation Hearing?

If you want more, what I did was use Google News, with search dates of 1/1/2015-3/1/2016 and the search term "Jeff Sessions Asset Forfeiture".
 

GasBandit

Staff member
It's Philadelphia. The only place more corrupt in the US that I can think of would be Chicago. It doesn't surprise me at all that they violated their own already-unacceptable policies. Why any sane person lives there, I'll never understand.
 
It's Philadelphia. The only place more corrupt in the US that I can think of would be Chicago. It doesn't surprise me at all that they violated their own already-unacceptable policies. Why any sane person lives there, I'll never understand.
...except for the fact that it's actually Colorado.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
You should read the linked story. It's even more amazingly stupid than the tweet.
Sadly, having experienced Colorado bureaucracy, I don't find that beyond credulity either. There's a lot of authority figures who think a WHOLE lot of themselves.
 

Dave

Staff member
Police: We sent her a letter telling her that her car could be picked up. She didn't do it so we charged fees until the only way to recoup those fees was to sell it.
News Reporter: Why was the letter dated on the day that we contacted you and not the date you said it was sent?
Police: Uh...reasons.
 
It's not just that stupid. Even if they had sent that letter when tbey said they did, they gave her at most 3 days to respond before adding the car to their auction.

And what the fuck are they even doing impounding the car? Shit, they ought to be returning the car to her door.
 
the idea of suing property is is stupid, and that's what i was getting at...
I agree wholeheartedly, but they may need to be careful, because if they enter a precedent that property may not be held guilty/innocent as regards any crime, then they will also no longer be able to make the claim that guns are intrinsically “evil...”

—Patrick
 
I agree wholeheartedly, but they may need to be careful, because if they enter a precedent that property may not be held guilty/innocent as regards any crime, then they will also no longer be able to make the claim that guns are intrinsically “evil...”

—Patrick
I don't think anyone tried to sue guns yet... so i think we're fine.
 
Good news from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court:

In a unanimous, 73-page opinion, the court found that although authorities have the right to seize property used in illegal enterprises, they must prove that the owner not only was aware of the illegal activity but also had agreed to it. The court also found that property seizures may breach the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against excessive fines if the seizure is “grossly disproportional” to the underlying offense.​
The SCOTUS has now UNANIMOUSLY affirmed that 8th Amendment protections are not limited solely to federal actions, they also apply to States under the 14th Amendment's Due Process Clause.
State (and also presumably city) governments which indiscriminately vacuum up assets wholesale may now be opening themselves up to the possibility of being sued under the 8th Amendment if their seizure is shown to be "unreasonable."

--Patrick
 
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