“They don’t have to convict you. They don’t even have to charge you with a crime. But they have your property.”
– Henry Hyde (former R-Ill., U.S. House of Representatives, Judiciary Committee Chairman as quoted in CNN article)

This year U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, in response to the Court’s denial of certiorari in Leonard v. Texas, asked “whether modern civil forfeiture statutes can be squared with the Due Process Clause and our Nation’s history.” In other words, why is the government still permitted to seize property from persons without ever charging them with a crime?

Read the article here.