adminSteve Forbes’ recent takedown of civil asset forfeiture is a wake-up call every patriot should hear: government should not be in the business of stealing from its citizens without a conviction. The practice turns our presumption of innocence on its head and makes property ownership a conditional privilege rather than an inalienable right.
Civil forfeiture lets authorities seize cars, cash and even homes through civil proceedings that name the property, not the person, meaning ordinary protections and the presumption of innocence evaporate. This upside-down system routinely forces law-abiding Americans into costly legal fights just to reclaim what’s rightfully theirs, while prosecutors operate under a lower burden of proof.
The human stories are devastating and should shame every elected official who tolerates the practice: family businesses nearly shuttered, life savings taken, and homes confiscated over petty or unproven allegations. These aren’t abstract statistics — they are neighbors and small-business owners who did nothing wrong and were still punished by an incentive structure that rewards seizures.
Worse, the system creates perverse incentives because many agencies get to keep a large share of the proceeds, and federal loopholes like equitable sharing allow local departments to bypass state reforms and line their own coffers. When policing becomes a profit center, law enforcement priorities shift from public safety to revenue generation, and that corrodes trust between citizens and those sworn to protect them.
Conservatives should lead on this because respect for private property, limited government, and due process are conservative principles at the core of our republic. The right reforms are simple and fair: require a criminal conviction before permanent forfeiture, strip agencies of direct financial incentives to seize property, and close federal loopholes that undermine state reforms.
Some states have already moved in the right direction, proving that reform doesn’t mean chaos — it means justice and restored liberty for citizens who deserve the law’s protection, not its predation. Congress and the courts must stop kicking this can down the road; if we truly believe in freedom and the rule of law, we abolish policing for profit and return to the timeless principle that you are innocent until proven guilty.
