At the Supreme Court yesterday, a lawyer argued it was fair & just when a county took an old lady's home, sold it & kept the profit—over an unpaid tax bill.
I wanted to share a few highlights, bc it shows how far the gov't will go to preserve its right to violate you. A thread.
A reminder that this is the case of the 94-year-old woman whose home was taken by the government after she fell $2,300 behind on her taxes.
They added $13,000 in penalties, sold the home for $40,000, and kept the profit. /2 reason.com/2023/04/25/rob…
During arguments, Kagan asked if there were any limits to this practice. Could the government seize a $5 million dollar house over a small tax debt?
Arguing for the government, lawyer Neal Katyal said: Well, yes it could!
An elderly woman in Nebraska lost her *million-dollar* farm over a small tax debt. A woman in Michigan lost her *300,000* home over a small tax debt. I could go on. /4 reason.com/2023/04/27/the…
But the best exchange was with Justice Barrett, who asked if the gov't could seize a car over $20 in parking tickets.
Katyal said no, bc there "is no tradition that goes back that could be looked to."
The good news: The government was humiliated & the Court seemed likely to side with Geraldine.
The bad news: The government's embarrassingly flimsy arguments *worked* in previous courts, which partially explains how governments have been able to steal from their own citizens. /6
After all, civil forfeiture is still legal. The government can take everything you have over a mere accusation. Without due process.
Like the time it took almost *$1 million* from this family without ever filing criminal charges. Shouldn't be normal! /7 reason.com/2022/02/18/fbi…
I'll end here: Geraldine asked her lawyer how much longer this would take, because, at 94 years old, "I haven't got forever."
She spent some of her final years—almost a decade—fighting this, because *this* is the hill the gov't chose to die on. It's vile, & I hope SCOTUS agrees.
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This is Linda Martin. A few years ago, the FBI seized her life savings: $40,200.
The kicker: She was never charged with a crime—and the government couldn’t tell her why it took her money.
Martin is far from the first. But she is trying to make sure she is the last. A thread.
In 2021, the FBI raided U.S. Private Vaults, a storage business in LA.
The company was suspected of criminal activity. But the warrant explicitly forbade agents from searching & seizing the contents of customers' boxes—like Linda Martin's.
Well... /2
The FBI violated the warrant (and the Constitution) & did so anyway.
Agents confiscated over $100 million in valuables using civil forfeiture, which allows the government to seize assets without having to prove its owners committed a crime.
This headline sounds peachy. The problem: It's completely deranged.
That's because most of these low-price cars—which Hawaii's govt is auctioning off—were seized by police from people who were never convicted of a crime.
In a sane world, that would be a scandal. A thread.
For those who are unfamiliar, civil forfeiture allows law enforcement to seize assets—cars, cash, homes—from people, often without having to prove they were guilty of a crime.
Hawaii, like many states, doesn't even require an arrest. /2
Here's an example. Hawaii is selling this Honda to the highest bidder. Missing from the site (and from the feel-good news story): The person cops took it from wasn't convicted of a crime.
Imagine having your car stolen & then seeing law enforcement sell it. Makes me see red. /3
I know people get abortions for different reasons, including health issues. I want to be empathetic. But it is also true that some people are aborting healthy fetuses that would survive outside of the womb. I can't wrap my head around that not being a form of murder.
I don't want to pick on a rando, but this is the kind of gaslighting that's become common when this topic comes up. Some just insist you're crazy. The article @emmma_camp_ links to from The Atlantic talks to someone performing these very abortions.