Pubdate: Tue, 23 Sep 2014
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 2014 The Washington Post Company
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/mUgeOPdZ
Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/491
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v14/n764/a06.html
Author: Paul B. Weiss
Page: A14

THERE IS NO REDEEMING THESE LAWS

Civil forfeiture laws are not "good intentions" gone "astray," as 
John Yoder and Brad Cates argued ["Kill the program we helped start," 
Washington Forum, Sept. 19]. They are an unvarnished violation of due 
process - the taking by government of property in a person's 
possession (and presumed in law to be that person's lawful property 
until proved otherwise) without proving that person to be guilty of a 
crime or the property to be the fruits of a crime.

Calling it a "civil" forfeiture does not make it any less a seizure 
of a person's property by government than calling a pig an eagle 
enables it to fly.

Paul B. Weiss, Hedgesville, W.Va.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom