Senate Would Limit Government Seizure of Assets

The Senate passed legislation Monday that puts curbs on the federal government’s ability to seize private property suspected of being linked to crime.

The voice vote in the Senate sends the asset-forfeiture bill to the House, where it has the backing of House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.).

The aim of the legislation is to alter a crime-fighting practice that has resulted in the seizure of hundreds of millions of dollars in property, mainly from suspected drug traffickers, but has also led to cases where innocent people are deprived of their homes, cars and boats.

The bill, said Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), would “protect the legitimate constitutional rights of American citizens while at the same time protecting this tremendous asset to law enforcement.”

The legislation would shift the burden of proof in asset-forfeiture cases from the property owner to the government.

A version of the bill that passed the House in June, 375 to 48, says that the government must have “clear and convincing evidence” that property is being used in an illegal act.

But the administration said that set too high a bar for federal prosecutors, and some senators agreed. A compromise says the government must make its case “by a preponderance of the evidence.”

The bill also extends the time a property owner has to challenge a seizure in court, ends the requirement that a person seeking to recover property post a bond with the court and enables a judge to release property to the owner if continued government possession poses a substantial hardship.

Sen. Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said asset forfeiture has been a “particularly potent weapon in the war on drugs.” But abuses have occurred, he said, when “prosecutorial zeal skirts the boundaries of due process, leading to the taking of private property regardless of whether the owner is innocent of, or even cognizant of, the property’s use in an illegal act.”