S.C. Judge Rules the Obvious: It s Unconstitutional for Police to Seize and Keep People s Property Without Proving They Committed Crimes Reason.com

Circuit Judge Steven H. John has ruled that the South Carolina’s civil asset forfeiture regulations violate the Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights of the citizens.

Civil asset forfeiture has been in the crosshairs across the country for years now because it allows police and prosecutors to declare that any money or property owned by a suspect is “connected” to a crime, seize it, and then ultimately keep it for themselves. And because this is a civil process, police and prosecutors can do this without having to convict anybody.

via reason.com

Maybe judges should get to keep 10 percent for declaring these laws unconstitutional. Net gain!