Supreme Court Rules Against Women Whose Cars Were Seized by the Police
Supreme Court Rules Against Women Whose Cars Were Seized by the Police
Two Alabama women spent more than a year trying to reclaim vehicles they owned, which the police had confiscated after arresting their drivers on drug charges.
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Civil forfeiture is such a scam. Just corrupt cops stealing stuff.
Not a scam if it's legal. And it's legal. It's legal theft.
Legal and abjectly unconstitutional.
I'll never understand how the US, of all the places in the world, in the world, tolerates a law that allows the state to forfeit private property without due process.
I'm amazed people are still bringing cases to this supreme court hoping they'll do the right thing.
I bet they started before the supreme court was openly stacked.
They've done the right thing in many cases. Been collecting them for giggles.
The women got their cars back, this case wasn't about that, but SCOTUS really needs to deal with the "Civil Asset Forfeiture" monster that they created.
Why? The cops protect the rich, like judges. They want to keep them happy so they can use their privilege to avoid consequences
See the problem is that these women were stupid enough to be poor.. the smart rich people would have bought another car; and called the country prosecutor to get the cars returned. Silly people should have just eaten their cake.
/s
“Culley and Sutton’s argument for a separate preliminary hearing appears in many respects to be a backdoor argument for a more timely hearing so that a property owner with a good defense against forfeiture can recover her property more quickly,” he wrote. “But the court’s precedents already require a timely hearing.” Alabama has since amended its forfeiture law to allow owners of seized property to request expedited hearings. “Our decision today does not preclude those legislatively prescribed innovations,” Justice Kavanaugh wrote. “Rather, our decision simply addresses the base-line protection of the due process clause.”Seems like it's less about civil forfeiture and more about how quickly can they get their property back when civil forfeiture happens
I think you have confused civil forfeiture with impounding.
You don't get your stuff back from civil forfeiture.
Asset forfeiture was a big part of the War On Drugs. Here in Cleveland the cops confiscated a drug dealer's hot rod car (Trans Am I think) and used it for a patrol car, painted just like the other cop cars. The Feds used to have to publish a list of all seizures, maybe still do. Once a week it was in USA Today and it was 4 pages long. IIRC Mid 90's Congress passed a law hampering the ability to seize and the weekly lists were 2 pages long after that
I'm not sure how much it should matter, but neither of the cars were in use by the owner, and both were confiscated with drivers who had drugs on them. I'm not saying right or wrong, but cops didn't just snag the cars and bounce. ACAB.
Saying the cars weren't in use by the owners is saying cops can confiscate parked cars. Adding a bit about drugs, which should be legal and regulated, is just saying cops can steal your stuff as long as they claim you did something wrong.
You are saying it was right by blaming the victims.
I'm not sure how much it should matter
I know exactly how much: not one whit. The cops stole legal property from people who themselves hadn't broken the law.
If someone committed perjury while astride my bicycle, I'd still ask for my bike back after cops finished questioning it.
Even if they had been the ones to break the law, the police should not be able to take anything, let alone without any due process, in the first place unless it's specifically to be temporarily held as evidence of a crime.
Sounds like personal use amounts though. One of Marijuana and the other meth. I can understand impounding the car and having to pay the also a crime tow amount. But to just take the car, when it's not being used to traffic drugs is complete BS.
I'm frankly surprised they didn't also arrest the owners anyway.
It's a lot more paperwork to charge someone with a crime.
If the cars were not in use, but needed to be moved for some reason, they could have just been impounded.