Property Seizures
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The problem with the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision affirming that government seizure of property in an arrest is a civil action, not punitive, and therefore legal, is that the property does not have to belong to the accused, but may be that of an uninvolved and unaware third party.
In theory, this puts any rental property in jeopardy when a tenant gets busted. Landlords have no means to monitor all the details of occupants’ lives.
Further, a footnote in the opinion notes a memo from the U.S. attorney general to U.S. attorneys encouraging seizure actions for operating funds because of budgetary shortfalls. The injustice cries out for congressional action.
R. W. TOLBERT
Anaheim
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