Appellate Law

CA1: forfeiture remand in light of Santos and excessive fines clause

By S. COTUS

US v. Levesque, No. 08-1344.  This is a three million dollar forfeiture judgment against a drug mule.  The First says that yes, indeed, 21 U.S.C. § 853 authorizes money judgments.  Next, the First agrees with the parties that in light of the Supreme Court's decision in United States v. Santos, the District Court should figure out whether Santos requires that such forfeiture orders be based on "proceeds" or "receipts."

Then the First gets all intellectual about the excessive fines claus, and concludes "the purpose of imposing a forfeiture as a money judgment is to "permit[] the government to collect on the forfeiture order in the same way that a successful plaintiff collects a money judgment from a civil defendant. Thus, even if the defendant does not have sufficient funds to cover the forfeiture at the time of the conviction, the government may seize future assets to satisfy the order."

Full post as published by Appellate Law and Practice on October 30, 2008 (boomark / email).