"Last February, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the Eighth Amendment prohibition against “excessive fines and fees” applies to civil forfeiture cases and other civil, non-criminal proceedings.
The case brought before the Court involved cops in Indiana seizing a $42,000 vehicle owned by a man named Tyson Timbs who drove it to an undercover drug deal. During oral arguments, Indiana Solicitor General Thomas Fisher AG unconvincingly claimed that it would not violate the US Constitution if police seized a Bugatti for going five miles an hour over the speed limit.
It’s about time the courts throttle civil forfeiture. Uncle Sam, all 50 states, and thousands of cities use it to boost cash-strapped budgets. Because civil forfeiture isn’t a criminal procedure, the protections a criminal defendant would receive don’t apply. The legal theory is that your property – not you – is presumed guilty. If you can’t prove it’s innocent, you can lose it."
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