Tag: Civil Asset Forfeiture

By Rep. Ken DeGraaf | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice Civil asset forfeiture began as a narrow exception in colonial maritime law, not as a general tool of domestic policing. In those early admiralty cases, the government often had jurisdiction over the ship or cargo, but not over the owner. The vessel might be in port, but the owner could be overseas, unknown, or beyond the reach of the court. In that circumstance, proceeding against the property itself—an action in rem—was often the only practical way to enforce customs law.  Justice Neil Gorsuch recently highlighted this history in his concurrence in Culley v. Marshall and asked the obvious question: if the government today has full jurisdiction over the person—if it can arrest, charge, and prosecute them directly—...