The Briefing Room
General Category => Editorial/Opinion/Blogs => Topic started by: EasyAce on July 20, 2017, 04:36:17 pm
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The attorney general wants to expand a practice that is essentially government-sanctioned stealing from citizens. Conservatives should oppose this.
By Tiana Lowe
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/449668/jeff-sessions-civil-asset-forfeiture-plan-government-sanctioned-stealing
With the news cycle centered on Russia and Republican health-care flops, Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s swift
and quiet assault on the Fifth Amendment has gone largely unnoticed. In a reversal of one of the few conservative
legacies of the Obama administration, the Trump Justice Department plans to restore the ability of police to seize money
and property from suspected criminals without due process. The Department of Justice formally announced on Wednesday
that it will roll back heavy restrictions imposed on law enforcement by former Attorney General Eric Holder, and thereby
encourage law enforcement to plunder private property and cash in order to . . . fund law enforcement.
The process of civil asset forfeiture, referred to in Sessions’s order as “federal adoptions,” has long attracted criticism
from proponents of civil liberties. The process allows police to seize property that they suspect may have been illegally
obtained. It involves local government essentially stealing from citizens who have not yet been tried for or found guilty
of a crime, and it seems to directly violate the due process guarantees within the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. In
a few notable cases, such as that of small-business owner Lyndon McLellan (https://fee.org/articles/ij-and-business-owner-beat-irs-on-civil-asset-forfeiture/) from North Carolina and college student
Charles Clarke (https://www.vox.com/2015/6/17/8792623/civil-forfeiture-charles-clarke), citizens have been robbed of hundreds of thousands of dollars without so much as being charged with
a crime. The practice emerged during Prohibition and has exploded during the War on Drugs, evolving into a multibillion
dollar industry for the police state . . .
. . . Justice Clarence Thomas has excoriated the practice, describing it as “policing for profit (http://www.nationalreview.com/article/445644/civil-asset-forfeiture-clarence-thomas)” and calling into question
its constitutionality. Indeed, as recently as last month, Thomas called upon the Court to reconsider whether their
rulings on the matter are consistent, a concern that was reflected in Senator Mike Lee’s castigation of the DOJ’s order
today. Rand Paul cited the Fifth Amendment in his condemnation of the order. Marco Rubio will likely also denounce
the bill, as his historical opposition to civil asset forfeiture has been so strong that it led him to refrain from voting to
confirm Loretta Lynch, who backed the practice, as attorney general. Senator Mike Crapo has also stood with Lee
to call on the DOJ to reform it.
Alas, there seems to be a bipartisan momentum against reform. In four years, Donald Trump may very well face
Harris in his quest for reelection. If so, Harris is bound to amplify the Democrats’ recent return to defending civil
asset forfeiture, which began with the replacement of Eric Holder with Loretta Lynch, and has more recently continued
with Harris’s Senate colleague, Dianne Feinstein, floating legislation to bring even cryptocurrency back into the
purview of forfeiture. Americans of all political persuasions deserve a good deal better than this.
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Sessions is human debris. Fire him immediately.
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But Trump thinks eminent domain is a great tool for making property profitable.
Its all using the power of government to take private property.
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But Trump thinks eminent domain is a great tool for making property profitable.
Its all using the power of government to take private property.
Shut up you Hillary supporter.
We got Gorsuch on SCOTUS thanks to Trump voters and that is all that matters. All your bitching about the violation of Constitutional rights does is help Hillary and damage our president.
So shut up and get on the train or be seen as an enemy of the state. We have criminals to stop. So who cares if the cops and feds take what they want without due process? You think Freedom comes for free?
/sarc in case someone did not have coffee and is not sharp enough to grasp the dig.
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Shut up you Hillary supporter.
We got Gorsuch on SCOTUS thanks to Trump voters and that is all that matters. All your bitching about the violation of Constitutional rights does is help Hillary and damage our president.
So shut up and get on the train or be seen as an enemy of the state. We have criminals to stop. So who cares if the cops and feds take what they want without due process? You think Freedom comes for free?
/sarc in case someone did not have coffee and is not sharp enough to grasp the dig.
Personally I want to know where Gorsuch stands on eminent domain. I asked the same about John Roberts and was called a troll, democrat etc.
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Kamila Harris/Linda Sarsour 2020
One Black. One Burka.
The new face of the Democrat Party.
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Personally I want to know where Gorsuch stands on eminent domain. I asked the same about John Roberts and was called a troll, democrat etc.
Neil Gorsuch opposes the Kelo decision – a terrible Supreme Court property rights ruling that Donald Trump loves (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2017/03/28/neil-gorsuch-opposes-the-kelo-decision-a-terrible-supreme-court-property-rights-ruling-that-trump-supports/?utm_term=.e04ed3df09ee)
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Neil Gorsuch opposes the Kelo decision – a terrible Supreme Court property rights ruling that Donald Trump loves (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2017/03/28/neil-gorsuch-opposes-the-kelo-decision-a-terrible-supreme-court-property-rights-ruling-that-trump-supports/?utm_term=.e04ed3df09ee)
Of course Trump loves Kelo, all crony capitalists do. One of the worst SC decisions ever.