Derek Cohen writes at National Review Online about a damaging blow struck against efforts to rein in harmful civil-asset forfeiture laws.

Last Thursday, the Sisyphean boulder of property rights and due process rolled downhill. SB 443, California’s attempt to summarily end civil-asset forfeiture and “equitable sharing” abuse, roundly failed passage in the State Assembly, 24 to 44.

Oddly enough, this was after a 31-to-1 vote in the Senate three months earlier. The only change to come about during the interim was the emergence of organized resistance on behalf of law enforcement and district attorneys.

Civil-asset forfeiture, the practice through which law enforcement takes permanent ownership of property not proven to be involved with a criminal offense, has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years. Outlets as diverse as Breitbart and The New Republic have excoriated the practice, highlighting how it functionally allows unaccountable bureaucrats to sidestep procedural safeguards and liquidate citizens’ property without a finding of guilt. Newsfeeds are replete with examples of abuse.

Forfeiture practices are further complicated with the existence of equitable-sharing agreements. Therein, state and local agencies partner with federal law enforcement, seize property, and proceed with the forfeiture motion through the jurisdiction with the least restrictive process, oftentimes the federal courts. The agencies then share the proceeds. This allows law enforcement to wholly sidestep any legal protections guaranteed by the state.