«
»

Good on Gov. Daniels

Tuesday, May 31st, 2011

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels has vetoed the absurd civil asset forfeiture “reform” bill I wrote about here. It would have allowed police and prosecutors to keep up to 90 percent of property and cash seizures, despite the Indiana State Constitution requirement that all forfeiture proceeds go to the state’s schools fund.

In his veto message, Daniels said paying out 90 cents of every forfeiture dollar for the “expense of collection” is improper.

“That is unwarranted as policy and constitutionally unacceptable in light of the Supreme Court’s recent guidance and the plain language of Article 8, Section 2 of the Indiana Constitution,” Daniels said.

Kudos to Daniels for doing the right thing.

It’s not exactly clear where this leaves things. The Indiana Supreme Court strongly criticized how forfeiture cases were being handled in a decision last month, but the ruling itself only applied to the specific case the court was considering. Local attorney Paul Ogden also still has a lawsuit pending. But Indiana Attorney General Paul Zoeller has vigorously defended the way the system has been operating, and has promised to defend any state prosecutor named in a future lawsuit.

Every forfeiture expert I’ve spoken to has said the practice of having private attorneys handling cases that directly benefit them financially is almost certainly a violation of the U.S. Constitution, so I imagine we could some federal challenges to at least that practice—though it may be difficult to figure out who has standing to bring such a suit.

I’ll have more on all of this soon.

(Hat tip: Eapen Thampy)

Digg it |  reddit |  del.icio.us |  Fark

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 31st, 2011 at 1:21 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under General Drug War. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

7 Responses to “Good on Gov. Daniels”

  1. #1 |  JS |  May 31st, 2011 at 1:24 pm

    “Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels has vetoed the absurd civil asset forfeiture “reform” bill I wrote about here. It would have allowed police and prosecutors to keep up to 90 percent of property and cash seizures, despite the Indiana State Constitution requirement that all forfeiture proceeds go to the state’s schools fund.”

    Anybody want to bet that the cops just ignore it and keep the funds anyway?

  2. #2 |  Mattocracy |  May 31st, 2011 at 1:29 pm

    I wish this guy would’ve run for president.

  3. #3 |  Yizmo Gizmo |  May 31st, 2011 at 1:49 pm

    What’s going on with Indiana these days?
    First they get to knock down doors and raid your house
    if they smell maryjane, or are willing to pretend they did,
    then said they might be coming to your house for inspections (given the ruling), now this, more incentive to take your money and belongings…just what the poor and middle class need more of: Gov’t burglars.
    Checking news, good, people agree…no accountability.
    http://www.news-sentinel.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110530/EDITORIAL/105300327
    I wish they’d get kicked out of the Union for flagrant Unconstitutional Activities.

    I can see the headlines now, as public outrage peaks: “Take Off, you Hoosiers.”

  4. #4 |  Dongo |  May 31st, 2011 at 1:52 pm

    Good that he vetoed it, but how the hell did a thing like that get through the legislature? Jeeze.

  5. #5 |  EH |  May 31st, 2011 at 2:10 pm

    I wish this guy would’ve run for president.

    He wouldn’t have vetoed it if he was going to run.

  6. #6 |  GreginOz |  May 31st, 2011 at 10:00 pm

    It is about time we all realised;

    WHEN INJUSTICE BECOMES LAW, RESISTANCE BECOMES DUTY.

  7. #7 |  Stories of consensual crime enforcement | Nobody's Business |  June 23rd, 2011 at 9:42 am

    [...] 31: Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels vetoed a bill that would have allowed police and prosecutors to keep up to 90% of what they take by forfeiture, a [...]

Leave a Reply