No American should be comfortable with our nation’s asset forfeiture laws

[David Horn]

There was a case of a young man carrying a bag on a train who was approached by a DEA agent and asked to show the contents of his bag. He had no drugs but he did have several thousand dollars in cash. He claimed it was seed money for a business. There was no evidence to the contrary. The DEA agent seized the money, and told him that he would have to go to court to get it back. He tried. He had proof that his story was valid, though he had no reason to need an excuse, but the court OK'd the DEA keeping the money anyway. Needless to say, the business opportunity died. Apparently, this is a common practice.

Asset forfeiture prior to conviction is wrong on every level.