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.
This is wild. Indiana law enforcement is seizing millions of dollars by rummaging through packages at the local FedEx hub & taking the money they find—without saying what crime the sender or recipient supposedly committed.
The scheme may violate Indiana's *own laws.* A thread.