Civil Forfeiture: Guilty Until Proven Innocent

In October 2017, Anthonia Nwaorie was about to board a plane in Houston. The nurse was going to fly to Nigeria with medical equipment, supplies, and $41,000 in cash to open a medical clinic in her hometown. However, Customs and Border Protection officials had other plans for her. They detained her, subjected to hours of interrogation, and forced her to miss her flight. They then seized her cash because she had not reported taking more than $10,000 in cash out of the country. The government is still holding her money.

Civil forfeiture allows law enforcement agents to seize private property without charging an individual with a crime if they believe that the property was obtained criminally. No evidence is necessary. No court hearings are required. All that law enforcement officials need is their belief. The property owner must then prove his innocent to recover his property.

According to the Texas Tribune,

Law enforcement officials say the ability to seize property before charging someone with a crime is crucial for carrying out investigations…

The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution state that no individual shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. According to the Constitution, and individual is innocent until proven guilty. Civil forfeiture flaunts this principle and turns it on its head.

If law enforcement officials must violate the Constitution in order to conduct investigations, then something is seriously wrong. And it’s not the Constitution.

In principle, the Constitution protects the freedom of each individual to live his life as he chooses, so long as he respects the freedom of others to do the same. This means that his interactions with others must be based on mutual consent–he cannot resort to force or fraud.

But contemporary law sees it much differently. Individuals are prohibited from engaging in a wide variety of activities that do not involve force or fraud, and they are subject to criminal penalties if they do. If you operate a  gambling parlor or sell marijuana to a consenting adult, you are a criminal. And law enforcement officers are given the task of stopping individuals from engaging in voluntary activities.

Fundamentally, if we want to end civil forfeiture abuse, then we must question and challenge the laws that police are asked to enforce.