Attorney General Jeff Sessions has long prided himself on asking if things are constitutional before proceeding, but the constitutionality of his desires has run crashing into his law and order views. He has decided to expand a positively unconstitutional policy that should be ruthlessly fought in courts and legislatures around the country. Jeff Sessions wants to seize the property of Americans accused of crimes even if they are never found guilty by a jury.
Civil asset forfeiture has long been the government’s preferred means to confiscate property from suspected drug dealers and others. The problem, however, is that often the person is found not innocent by a jury and the assets are unrecoverable. According to the Department of Justice’s Inspector General, the Drug Enforcement Agency alone has seized more than $3 billion from people not charged with a crime.
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What is appalling here is that many states are enacting prohibitions on civil asset forfeiture, but the Attorney General wants to allow state and local law enforcement to use federal asset forfeiture laws to continue seizing property. Local law enforcement will thereby be able to get around their own states’ laws, so long as they share the spoils of their ill gotten gains with the federal government. This turns the concept of federalism on its head.
It amounts to state sponsored piracy against the American people, is unconstitutional, and the President should restrain his Attorney General. Frankly, given the hostility of the state of New York towards the President, he ought to curtail this now before Governor Cuomo and the Attorney General of New York use this on Trump, Inc.
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Shame on Jeff Sessions https://t.co/e19jDMBzPI pic.twitter.com/0FKTmyzr0C
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) July 20, 2017
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