Ethics

Supreme Court to Hear Asset Forfeiture Case

By Ed Brayton

Balko has an article at Reason about a case the Supreme Court will hear this fall challenging the asset forfeiture laws in Illinois. This is a very important case that could, for the first time, rein in some of our clearly unconstitutional asset forfeiture laws.

This fall, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Alvarez v. Smith, a challenge to the state of Illinois' Drug Asset Forfeiture Procedure Act (DAFPA). (Disclosure: the Reason Foundation, publisher of Reason.com, joined in an amicus brief in the case.) The six petitioners in Alvarez each had property seized by police who suspected the property had been involved in a drug crime. Three had their cars seized, three had cash taken. None of the six were served with a warrant, none of the six were charged with the crime. All perfectly legal, at least until now.

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on September 16, 2009 (boomark / email).