How Easily Can Cops Steal Your Stuff, and Other Hard Questions For the Supreme Court

Posted on October 31, 2023 by fromthefirstorder

How Easily Can Cops Steal Your Stuff, and Other Hard Questions For the Supreme Court

Posted By: MrFusion [Send E-Mail]
Date: Tuesday, 31-Oct-2023 13:29:43
http://www.rumormill.news/231664

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How Easily Can Cops Steal Your Stuff, and Other Hard Questions For the Supreme Court
Police departments use civil asset forfeiture to seize millions of dollars’ worth of property every year. In Culley v. Marshall, the justices will decide whether to help them get away with it.
By Madiba K. Dennie – October 19, 2023In 2017, Halima Culley bought a car for her son to use when he went off to college at the University of South Alabama. A few years later, police pulled Halima’s son over and found weed and a gun in the car, a 2015 Nissan Altima. Police impounded the car, which Halima owned, and arrested her son, who eventually pleaded guilty to a minor drug offense.Halima, though, was never charged with any crime. She didn’t know her son had weed in the car. And she wanted her car back.Alabama would not make it easy. The state sought to keep her car by using a process called civil asset forfeiture, which lets the government seize money and property allegedly involved in a crime. Alabama law allows the state to keep the property it seizes while a forfeiture action proceeds through the courts—a process that can take months or even years. For people like Halima, the “exclusive means” available for getting their property back earlier is ponying up a bond of twice its value, as assessed by the sheriff or court clerk. For Halima, the bond could easily have been more than $30,000.Halima contends that this gussied-up hostage situation is unconstitutional. She argued twice—first before the Southern District of Alabama, and then before the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals—that the Constitution’s protections against deprivations of property “without due process of law” entitle her to a prompt hearing on whether she can get her property back until a court makes a final decision on the civil asset forfeiture case. She lost both times. Halima will be making her argument once again on October 30—this time, to the Supreme Court in Culley v. Marshall.Civil asset forfeiture laws, which are in place in all 50 states and D.C., let cops and prosecutors use flimsy allegations of criminal connections to turn people into a revenue source worth tens of billions of dollars. Like Halima, many haven’t even committed a crime. Her case will determine what kind of opportunity people have to take back what’s theirs.~~~~~ more at ~~~~~https://ballsandstrikes.org/scotus/culley-v-marshall-supreme-court-cops-steal-your-stuff/

https://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=231664

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