[jazusamo]

According to the Institute for Justice, in many civil forfeiture cases, the government will make a deal with the owner where he or she will agree to turn over half their seized money in order to make a lengthy and costly legal fight go away.

I'm no lawyer but that sounds like extortion by the government to me.

[Mollypitcher1]

Who is going to pay for his legal expenses and the mental hell he has been put through?

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

They should have to pay double.

[Blood of Tyrants]

This is one of the many reasons to end the War on Drugs.

[jazusamo]

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[afraidfortherepublic]

From the article:

Two months ago, the government offered McLellan 50 percent of his money back and warned him against chasing publicity, even going so far as to suggest it would rile people inside the IRS and could hurt his chances of seeing his cash again, his attorneys said. “Today the the DOJ is giving him 100 percent,” said Institute for Justice spokesman J. Justin Wilson. “We got him an enormous amount of publicity – and it did work.” Wilson said McLellan had other resources to keep his business, “L & M Convenience Mart,” open since last October. But he had to fork over $3,000 for his initial legal fees, and some $19,000 for an accountant to audit his business to prove to the government there wasn’t anything untoward going on. The government said it will not repay those costs or any interest on the seized money.

This is simply OUTRAGEOUS. The IRS is acting like the Mafia. Worse.

[Avid Coug]

The federal civil forteiture law has been drawing critical attention in the news media for some time. I think that most Americans see the law as inherently contradictory to basic due process laws and private property rights in this country. It’s time for Congress to simply repeal the law. Who will be the Republican and Democrat leaders to step up and sponsor the bill in the House and the Senate?

[ConservingFreedom]

The law was instituted to help the government ferret out drug dealers, terrorists or other criminals

Or so they claimed - and the jackboot-lickers ate it up.

[RightOnTheBorder]

Interest? Lawyer fees? Opportunity cost? Punitive damages so this doesn’t happen to the next innocent business owner?

Well at least it didn’t cost any federal scum their salary to return this man his money.

[Soul of the South]

The Fourth Amendment seems very clear in its wording: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects,[a] against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

This was an unreasonable search and seizure.