Civil asset forfeitures (MPSIMS version)

There’s a 2017 thread in Great Debates on civil asset forfeitures. Rather than sharing this in GD, I want to post it in MPSIMS. They is just ‘Hey, look what’s in the news again.’

For Pearsons and Store, the government’s seizure of their silver is unacceptable, and they have decided to fight back.

They, along with six others, have teamed up with the Institute for Justice for a class-action lawsuit challenging the government’s raid as an illegal search.

“The government’s theory is that having cash makes you a presumptive criminal, and I think every American should be worried about that,” IJ senior attorney Rob Johnson said.

Overly broad warrants are another issue:

The government alleged that the company conspired with customers to sell drugs, launder money, and stash ill-gotten goods.

Cool. So I don’t have a problem with a warrant being issued to search the safety deposit boxes of those individuals that they have probable cause to believe have conspired with U.S. Private Vaults to launder and stash illegal cash and other items. But, IMHO, the warrant is overly broad and non-specific when it allows the search of every safety deposit box in the whole place.

This just seems like theft to me, plain and simple. How is it unreasonable to have valuables in a safety deposit box, that’s largely what they’re for!