I met Chip Mellor way back in 1995 at a summer conference sponsored by the Institute for Justice.  The conference was one of the best experiences of my life, and, along with Chip, I met a litany of truly impressive people who opposed forfeiture.  Looking back, it does not appear that the government is retreating.  In fact, government is growing more imposing and more heavy handed with each year.  Looking back and doing the math, Chip was my age at that time, tring to establish the groundwork for opposing an increasingly Anti-American American justice system.  Since becomming a lawyer in 1996, I have constantly kept people like Chip Mellor in mind.  I hope that my little contribution here in Michigan as a litigation lawyer ulimately helps to excite passion for liberty and freedom, while folks like Chip work in the nonprofit sector trying to turn back the tide.  

Civil Forfeiture Laws And The Continued Assault On Private Property 

by Chip Mellor 

Civil forfeiture laws represent one of the most serious assaults on private property rights in the nation today. Under civil forfeiture, police and prosecutors can seize your car or other property, sell it and use the proceeds to fund agency budgets–all without so much as charging you with a crime. Unlike criminal forfeiture, where property is taken after its owner has been found guilty in a court of law, with civil forfeiture, owners need not be charged with a crime let alone be convicted to lose homes, cars, cash or other property.

Americans are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty, but civil forfeiture turns that principle on its head. With civil forfeiture, your property is guilty until you prove it innocent. Civil forfeiture–where the police may seize property upon the mere suspicion that it may have some connection to criminal activity–threatens the property rights of all Americans. The overriding goal of police and prosecutors should be the fair and impartial administration of justice. Civil forfeiture laws at the federal level and in 42 states, however, dangerously shift law enforcement priorities instead toward policing for profit.

Read the entire article on Forbes