[Forgotten Amendments]

Sessions will be grilled on jokes he made 30 years ago. NObody cares that he's an advocate of the state mafia stealing.

[mrsmith]

Big money behind attacks on Sessions.
BIG money.

[jimmyray]

I admit a fair amount of ignorance on this subject, and can see the potential abuses. HOWEVER, George Will is not a trustworthy source for anything, and his gleeful attack of the most conservative Senator in Washington should cause one to consider the source.

[kabar]

George Will should be banned from this site. He is the biggest a$$hole ever.

[Rebel2016]

George Will is a hateful NeverTrumper who called for Republicans to vote for Hillary to make Trump lose in all 50 states to teach Trump supporters a lesson

[thoughtomator]

Complaints from the usual suspects, published by the usual propaganda rags, should be ignored.

[Behind the Blue Wall]

I fail to see how Sessions is in any involved in this case.

[Repeal The 17th]

Who’s side are you on?

[Art in Idaho]

Hey George Will, this is the new America. You're either with the communists or you're with America. Don't automatically dismiss this. I advice you to pause a bit and realize the people you are aligning yourself with. Quit calling yourself conservative. You are not acting like one.

I repeat, make a choice. It's the choice every American now has to make. Choose the communists or America. It really is that simple and why a lot of people finally saw the light and voted for America.

[editor-surveyor]

.
Sessions’ position on civil forfeiture is not “conservative,” nor is it attributable to “law and order.”

Conservatives have always demanded adherence to the constitution, and due process. Civil forfeiture conforms to neither. It is a tool of the far left.

Trump needs to get Sessions in line on this, or dump him. Appointing Free Masons to positions of authority is always a gross mistake.
.

[zeestephen]

George Will forgot to mention some key facts.

The original drug sale by their son, at a location away from the house, happened more than two and a half years ago.

The parent’s “eviction” lasted one week, at which point the Police allowed the parents to move back into the home, as long as the son was not allowed to live there.

More than two years ago, after nation wide publicity, the city terminated its forfeiture case against the house, and the city made significant revisions to its forfeiture policies.

[rmlew]

I happen to care. I’d like to see him forced to explain which founding father would have supported this, and if he can’t why he is supporting something blatantly unConstitutional.

[wardaddy]

Confiscation and forfeiture may be the most abused legal action in the govt arsenal

It needs to be reeled in not further expanded

Used to be the Feds abused it most

Now it’s state and local

Google cash confiscations

That’s just the tip of the iceberg

The founders would not believe it

It’s a lot more than the war on drugs

All agencies use it

[Popman]

Bmk

[Nifster]

He was very specific under what conditions seizure should occur....it included a judicial proceeding....which all too often does not happen.

Be very careful what you believe from the left

[sauropod]

bkmk

[dangus]

The great long anecdote doesn’t match Sessions’ defense of civil forfeiture. Will suggests Sessions is wrong about what
T civil forfeiture is; perhaps instead, he should look for common ground. I agree with Sessions’ argumentation; if that doesn’t match the Pennsylvania practices, let’s make sure Pennsylvania comes into line with our next AG’s interpretation of what is legally defensible.

The government Should be able to seize profits from criminal activity; if the Pennsylvania family was not part of the criminal activity, they shouldn’t be included.

The burden of proof Should be lower, once it established that a crime has been committed by those whose property is seized. It would be absurd to establish reasonable doubt standards for each possession. But the story doesn’t tell ANY reason to believe the house was even the property of the guilty. Or was Will hiding something from us?

Lastly, there must be a judge and a fair hearing; what Will describes is not such a case.

[exDemMom]

At a 2015 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on forfeiture abuses, one senator said “taking and seizing and forfeiting, through a government judicial process, illegal gains from criminal enterprises is not wrong,” and neither is law enforcement enriching itself from this.

And further down, this:

IJ’s Robert Everett Johnson notes that this senator missed a few salient points: In civil forfeiture there usually is no proper “judicial process.”

In other words, this whole article is built on a straw man, in which the target's position is misrepresented, and the arguer then makes the case against the misrepresentation.

The article quotes Senator Sessions as actually saying "through a government judicial process" and then goes on to argue that he advocates for seizure without process. Since the article is based on a strawman, there is really no need to read more.

[RegulatorCountry]

A lot of drug warriors fell for the logic of penalizing drug dealers by seizing their property. Where they failed was envisioning just how corrupting this power would be, and that it’s just not Constitutional, no matter how well-intended or how much actual drug dealers should be penalized. It was ripe for abuse and has been grossly abused. No more civil asset forfeiture without a fair trial by jury and a conviction.

I hope Jeff Sessions has disavowed any advocacy of this practice; if not, there’s no time like the present. Time has told the tale, it was the wrong thing to do, no matter what the intention might have been at the time.

[jmaroneps37]

And what Will has to say is important because......?

[drpix]

Obama dines with right wingers at George Will’s house - thinkprogress.org Excerpt:

"Barack Obama arrived at the home of conservative columnist George Will to dine with a host of right-wing luminaries."

"And, thanks to an enterprising photographer, a shot through a window showed op-ed stalwarts William Kristol and David Brooks are also part..."

Brooks, Kristol and Will - the inside the beltway "conservative" elites who were so eager to welcome Obama to Washington in 2009 - are continuing their scorched earth #nevertrump greeting for the Trump presidency.

Their "conservative" writings should be regarded accordingly. Let the thinkprogress.org leftwing internet crowd cover the trio.