After a 2 year battle the State of Alabama Appeals Court ruled that the confiscation of $52,560 from Juan Manuel Martinez-Camacho was not supported by evidence presented by the state of Alabama. The court reversed the decision of a trial court that had found for the...
Asset Forfeiture
Federal Judges Are Waging War on the Fourth Amendment
In 1984, as part of Ronald Reagan’s renewed war on drugs, the Drug Enforcement Administration launched Operation Pipeline. This program was inspired by the strategies employed by state troopers in New Mexico who, after pulling somebody over, asked specific questions...
How Qualified Immunity Became Absolute Immunity for Police Officers
When Israel Leija, Jr. was picking up food at a drive-through in 2010, police officers approached his car to arrest him. Leija was guilty of violating his probation, and when the officers informed him that he was under arrest, he sped away. For the next twenty...
Policing For Profit: How Civil Asset Forfeiture Has Perverted American Law Enforcement
Picture this: You’re driving home from the casino and you've absolutely cleaned up – to the tune of $50,000. You see a police car pull up behind you, but you can’t figure out why. Not only have you not broken any laws, you’re not even speeding. But the police officer...
Trump’s Big Government
A recent Foreign Policy article makes a case that the role of the government in the U.S. economy has grown under President Trump. Normally this would seem contrary to the values of a conservative administration. However, Trump is no small-government conservative nor...
Joe Biden: The Architect of America’s Disastrous War on Drugs
As expected, former vice-president Joe Biden is once again running for president, joining what feels like a million other Democrats who have already declared their candidacies. (To name a few, the list of candidates currently includes Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen....
George H.W. Bush’s Forgotten Debacles and Demagoguery
After former President George H.W. Bush died late last year, he was widely hailed as a great leader and patriot. At the National Cathedral funeral service, biographer Jon Meachan declared that Bush was a “twentieth-century Founding Father.” The minister of Bush’s...
USA: Quite Literally a Police State
Tennessee legislator says his colleagues are afraid to end the power of civil asset forfeiture in their state due to the backlash they will receive from the police who "enjoy" that power: “Law enforcement likes to have this revenue, I would assume, because there’s not...
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