Law Prof: Forfeiture Case Before High Court Is About Government Bullying
Tyhesha Brunston’s car was held by the government for three years after her friend was arrested while driving the vehicle. The Chicago woman is among six “innocent owners” of property seized by the government who are challenging Illinois forfeiture laws before the U.S. Supreme Court today.
Brunston is represented by University of Chicago law professor Craig Futterman, the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) reports. At issue is whether innocent property owners are entitled to a prompt, informal hearing to get their seized assets back while waiting for a more formal hearing to take place.
The case is “really about government bullying,” Futterman told the newspaper. For law enforcement, “forfeiture has become a multibillion-dollar business across the nation,” he said. “With those powerful interests in taking and seizing and keeping property, there needs to be some kind of check.”
Brunston had loaned her Chevrolet Impala to a friend, who was arrested for drug possession while smoking marijuana in the vehicle, the story says.
The Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled in the case that the state forfeiture procedures “show insufficient concern for the due process right of the plaintiffs,” the Christian Science Monitor reports.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor found a constitutional violation by New York in a similar case while she was a member of the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, according to the Wall Street Journal.
