Free Republic

Republican political consultant Mike Madrid isn't used to getting calls from the ACLU, and yet he has found himself working with the civil liberties group because some practices are so egregious that Republicans and Democrats should have no trouble finding common cause. The issue is civil asset forfeiture -- also known as "policing for profit." The federal government can seize your property, and the only way you can get it back is to prove you are not guilty of a crime. California law prohibits local authorities from permanently seizing most property without a conviction, but there's a loophole in the...

Oliver Wendell Holmes famously said, “Ignorance of the law is no excuse.” But in 2007 the Florida Department of State reported it had received and processed 5,504 new laws. But in addition to laws there exists a multiplicity of departments that create rules having the force of law and that are enforceable by fines or imprisonment. There are, for example, regulations governing the size, quantity and type of fish you can catch. If you’re in possession of an undersized lobster you’re subject to a fine even if you bought it at the grocery store. If you’re a visitor and you’ve...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- A major NewsChannel 5 investigation has uncovered serious questions about Tennessee's war on drugs. Among the questions: are some police agencies more concerned about making money off the drugs, than stopping them? At the center of this months-long investigation are laws that let officers pull driver over looking for cash. Those officers do not even have to file criminal charges against a person to take his/her money. It turns out, those kind of stops are now happening almost every day in Middle Tennessee. Case in point: a 2009 stop where a tractor trailer was stopped for a...