Progress in Congress for real civil forfeiture reform

Good news!

"The unanimous 26-0 vote for H.R. 1525, the Fifth Amendment Integrity Restoration (FAIR) Act, is a kind of endorsement of comprehensive civil forfeiture reform. The measure would:

• End the use of internal administrative hearings for forfeiture judgments, or (in other words) cabin the powers of forfeiture to Article III courts;
• Require the government to prove that victims of forfeiture had actual or constructive knowledge of a crime, which is a sharp improvement over the current requirement of proof – namely, that the property probably was connected to a crime;
• Send forfeiture proceeds to the U.S. Treasury, not to the budgets of law enforcement agencies; and
• Eliminate “equitable sharing,” which currently allows state and local law enforcement agencies to hand off seizures and forfeiture proceedings to the federal government in exchange for a portion of the revenue that the federal seizure generates. ..."

Progress in Congress for real civil forfeiture reform - Competitive Enterprise Institute