OPINION:
A 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel found the FBI had no constitutional right to open hundreds of private citizens’ security deposit boxes and seize everything valued at more than $5,000 — all the while failing to charge anybody with a crime.
Wow. An FBI that oversteps its authorities. How shocking. Not.
The FBI has been on an all-courts press to steal away every constitutionally protected God-given individual liberty from the citizens of America for years now. The wayward bureau is part and parcel of Donald Trump’s aptly named “deep state.”
But the more the FBI gets by with it, the more emboldened the FBI becomes. At least this time around — unlike with Waco, unlike with Ruby Ridge — nobody died. This time, people just lost their Fourth Amendment rights, not to mention their inherent rights to be considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law and by a jury of peers.
No biggie.
This is the backstory: The FBI and the Department of Justice, during the course of a case investigation, obtained a warrant to raid security deposit boxes at U.S. Private Vaults, a rental business — but only as a means of identifying the owners of the boxes and then to preserving the contents. Instead, they sifted through everybody’s files and personal effects, seized valuables and generally treated all the box owners as if they were guilty of crimes for which they hadn’t even been formally accused.
From the nonprofit Institute for Justice, which launched a class-action suit against the government: “Even though the warrant authorizing the raid only permitted the FBI to open boxes to identify their owners and safeguard the contents, agents rummaged through hundreds of boxes, ran currency they found in front of drug sniffing dogs and made copies of people’s most personal records. The DOJ then filed a massive administrative forfeiture claim to take more than $100 million in cash and other valuables, again, without charging any individual with a crime.”
Asset forfeiture is one of government’s greatest tools of theft and oppression — and how it even exists in a country like America with a Constitution that contains a Fourth Amendment, a Fifth Amendment and tons of other amendments keeping government in a role of subservience to the people, is anybody’s guess. It’s a cash cow for law enforcement, but it’s a disaster for citizens and those who care about the rule of law.
In short, forfeiture laws allow government agents the ability to seize any items — cash, cars, boats, homes, jewelry, etc. — that are suspected of being used during the commission of certain crimes, and then keep those seized items until the owner proves his or her innocence. The proving of innocence can take years, wind through several courts and bankrupt the plaintiffs in the process. But on principle alone, think about that for a minute.
The government can take what it wants that a private citizen owns — with a warrant, without a warrant; with a crime, without a crime; with a conviction, without a conviction — and then the citizen has to prove innocence to get back what was wrongly taken in the first place. In America, remember, innocence is the default position. In America, it’s incumbent on the accuser to prove otherwise.
Asset forfeiture flips all that.
Asset forfeiture changes that equation and allows the government to behave as tyrants, and take as they will — ostensibly, only in the most severe of circumstances — but realistically, more truthfully, whenever and wherever they want.
Abuse of this unconstitutional system, as might be imagined, runs rampant.
This U.S. Private Vaults case is one such abuse. Institute for Justice sued, but for years, the FBI and DOJ stonewalled, dragging the matter through the legal system, all the while alleging the agents had the right to do what they did.
Thankfully, a court just ruled otherwise.
“Today’s opinion draws a line in the sand, to ensure something like this never happens again,” said Institute for Justice senior attorney Rob Johnson. “If this had come out the other way, the government could have exported this raid as a model across the country. Now, the government is on notice its actions violated the Fourth Amendment.”
Yes. On notice.
As if the Fourth Amendment itself didn’t already set the government on notice — now it’s on notice again.
“The government [initially] promised the magistrate that it would not conduct a criminal search or seizure of the boxes,” said Institute for Justice senior attorney Robert Frommer. “After years of litigation, [the] opinion shows that not to be true. The government lied to justify its forfeiture scheme.”
A government that lies? An FBI and DOJ that have gone off the rails? Maybe it was the Russians.
It’s high time the FBI and DOJ had their power checked — permanently. It’s past time, too, for the asset forfeiture program that has served as a plague on the Constitution for so many years to be dismantled.
Only citizens who are found guilty in a court of law by a jury of peers should be treated as criminals. That used to be common sense in a free country like America. Rogue federal authorities weaponized by political opportunists have destroyed that system. But guilty until proven innocent is not a standard that should stay in place.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Lockdown: The Socialist Plan To Take Away Your Freedom,” is available by clicking HERE or clicking HERE or CLICKING HERE.
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