Radley Balko has a roundup of critical reactions to what he calls the “astonishingly awful” 6-3 Supreme Court decision last week. Cato had filed an amicus brief on the side that did not prevail, urging recognition at least of an opportunity to challenge the seizure after the fact. Earlier here.
Posts Tagged ‘forfeiture’
Crime and punishment roundup
- Under new Illinois law, third offense of tossing cigarette to ground will be a felony [Andrew Stuttaford]
- “The New York Times calls for prosecutors to establish an ‘open file’ policy to combat prosecutorial misconduct.” [Nicole Hyland, LEF; New York Times; Radley Balko, whose column at the Washington Post has now launched]
- “Three Arrests Illustrate the Impact of New York’s Silly Seven-Round Ammunition Limit” [Jacob Sullum]
- Forfeiture reform on the agenda in Michigan? [John Ross/Reason, Institute for Justice, earlier]
- Speaking of law enforcement for profit, more on the proliferation of fees and third-party collectors that can land minor miscreants in “debtors’ prison” [Fox News; related, Balko]
- “Want to stop repeats of Columbine and Newtown? Deprive mass killers of the spotlight. Can the media do that?” [Ari Schulman, WSJ via @garyrosenwsj]
- “She’s regretted the lie that sent him to prison ever since.” [NY Mag]
“In Houston alone, about 300,000 sex trafficking cases are prosecuted each year.”
Someone must have deactivated the Dallas Morning News’s B.S. detectors [Amy Alkon] The paper’s editors uncritically cheer new proposals from Texas Sen. John Cornyn and Rep. Ted Poe for legal changes including wider use of forfeiture and more draconian sentences for johns. More: “There have been two compelling-prostitution cases filed in Harris County this year. Not 300,000. Two.” [Mark Bennett] Yet more: the paper corrected 11/24.
Police and prosecution roundup
- Why license plate scanning is an up-and-coming front in the surveillance wars [Radley Balko]
- Prosecutor whose lapse sent innocent man to prison for 25 years will go to jail — for ten days [Adler, Shackford]
- “Nurse fights charges she helped father commit suicide” [Phil. Inq., Barbara Mancini case, via @maxkennerly]
- California inmates released, crime rates jump: a Brown v. Plata trainwreck? [Tamara Tabo, Heather Mac Donald/City Journal]
- Driver arrested under Ohio’s new law banning hidden compartments in cars even though he had nothing illicit in the compartment [Shackford] Tenaha, Tex. traffic stops, cont’d: “Give Us Cash or Lose Your Kids and Face Felony Charges: Don’t Cops Have Better Things to Do?” [Ted Balaker/Reason, earlier]
- Arizona Republic series on prosecutorial misconduct [4-parter]
- Few act as if they care about Mr. Martin-Oguike’s fate at hands of a false accuser [Scott Greenfield]
Another Michigan structuring case
Headline, from WWJ: “Sterling Heights Gas Station Owner Says IRS Grabbed $70K From His Bank Account For No Reason” Mark Zaniewski, “owner of Metro Marathon in [suburban Macomb County], said the IRS emptied out his bank account twice over the course of a week this spring.” No charges have been filed; Larry Salzman of the Institute for Justice, representing Zaniewski, says the accounts were seized on suspicion of bank “structuring” (knowingly arranging deposits to fall below $10,000), even though some deposits were over that threshold. Salzman says his client has been waiting seven months for his cash and in the mean time is unable to get a hearing before a judge. IJ recently took on a structuring case involving a grocer in nearby Fraser, Mich. Earlier on structuring and its intersection with forfeiture law here, here, here, etc.
Update via Dan Alban on Twitter: “BREAKING: IRS voluntarily dismisses Michigan forfeiture cases, will return seized money to owners of family grocery store and gas station. Doesn’t get feds out of IJ’s separate constitutional lawsuit re: right to prompt hearing, Dehko v. Holder.”
Clawback provision
“South Dakota v. Fifteen Impounded Cats” is one of those fairly common in rem cases with an amusing caption. Would you really be surprised if the cats won? [Lowering the Bar, which has the best list I’ve seen of comical case names]
P.S. On a more serious note, many of these cases are attempted forfeitures with the associated due process problems [The Economist]
Constitutional and Supreme Court roundup
- Now available: 2012-13 edition of the celebrated Cato Supreme Court Review. And full video of Cato’s Constitution Day, at which many of the CSCR authors spoke, is up here;
- Is a hearing necessary if prosecutors freeze assets needed to pay defense lawyers? Court hears argument in forfeiture, money laundering case Kaley v. U.S. [ABA Journal, Jacob Sullum, Scott Greenfield, Harvey Silverglate]
- Court grants certiorari in greenhouse-gas case Utility Air Regulatory Group v. EPA [Jonathan Adler, Richard Faulk]
- Ilya Somin briefly reviews three new books on constitutional law: John McGinnis and Michael Rappaport on originalism, Randall Kennedy on affirmative action, and Clark Neily on judicial engagement [Volokh]
- General jurisdiction: “Justices Wrestle With Whether California Law Reaches A Mercedes Plant In Argentina” [Daniel Fisher]
- Home Building & Loan Ass’n v. Blaisdell (1934) eviscerated the Contracts Clause, right? Well, it’s complicated [Gerard Magliocca]
- Much-noted interview with Justice Scalia [New York mag] Is there a conservative jurisprudence bubble? [Daniel McCarthy] New opera “Scalia/Ginsburg” [Washington Post]
- “The Fiduciary Foundations of Federal Equal Protection” [Gary Lawson, Guy Seidman, & Robert Natelson, SSRN]
“DA’s Office in Georgia Used Asset Forfeiture Funds on Booze, Steak, Galas…”
This isn’t the first time Fulton County, which includes Atlanta, has come under suspicion of turning forfeiture proceeds into what one might call seizure slush funds. “According to guidelines published by the U.S. Department of Justice, agencies that participate in the federal equitable sharing program (like the Fulton County DA), must ‘avoid any appearance of extravagance, waste, or impropriety’ when spending forfeiture funds.” [Nick Sibilla, Institute for Justice]
P.S. In other forfeiture news, the U.S. Department of Justice has dropped efforts to seize/forfeit the property of landlords renting to California legal medical marijuana dispensaries [Nick Schou/OC Weekly, Reason] And [h/t commenter Gitarcarver] South Florida’s Sun-Sentinel has an expose of forfeiture doings in Sunrise, Fla. Yet more: Baltimore judge aims stinging criticisms at assistant U.S. attorney Stefan Cassella in seized-Mercedes case [Van Smith, City Paper]
Institute for Justice tackles a structuring-forfeiture case
The Institute for Justice is defending the owners of a grocery store in Fraser, Mich. who saw their bank account seized under forfeiture law on suspicion of structuring deposits (keeping them below $10,000 on purpose to avoid reporting). Video here. We’ve been covering the results of structuring law, and its intersection with forfeiture powers, for a while now, and its nice to see the issue attracting the notice of a group as formidable and high-profile as IJ.
Police and prosecution roundup
- Body cameras protect both police and the citizenry [Steve Chapman]
- “Federal Prosecutor Disciplined for Making False Statements” [John Steele, Legal Ethics Forum]
- “The more popular view is that the role of a jury is to deliver a guilty verdict when the government accuses someone of a crime” [Ken at Popehat]
- More on forfeiture following New Yorker piece [Steve Greenhut, ABA Journal, earlier]
- How feds went after maker of secret automotive compartments [Brendan Koerner, Wired, April; Amy Alkon] Held at gunpoint for half hour+: massive Texas SWAT raid on organic farm yields okra, no pot [Radley Balko] Mother Jones magazine is perfectly happy to cheer on Drug War lunacy when that affords a chance to bash big pharma [Cathy Reisenwitz, Thoughts on Liberty]
- “Law Enforcement Wants To Weaken Section 230: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?” [websites’ immunity for content left by visitors; Popehat]
- Eliot Spitzer’s prosecutorial sins catalogued [Lawrence Cunningham]