Today’s newsletter from Jon Guze, JLF’s new Director of Legal Studies, is about civil asset forfeiture and some hopeful legislation currently making its way through Congress.  Let’s all hope that this gains some traction.  Of all the blatant abuses of government power, this one is among the most egregious.  And yet, remarkably, I didn’t really know about it until recently.

It turns out, the police can seize your property if they suspect it is in some way “associated” with a crime, even if they don’t charge you with anything.  In the worst cases, people have had even their homes seized, possibly because a child was in possession of small amounts of drugs.  It’s just crazy.  Oh, and police departments get to keep the assets they seize, so there’s definitely no conflict there.

So I commend Jon’s newsletter to you.  Or you can sign up to receive his and other weekly newsletters from John Locke Foundation researchers here.  In the meantime, if you want a humorous, but infuriating, look at the issue, I recommend this 16 1/2 minute clip from Last Week Tonight with John Oliver back in October. (Warning: It’s HBO.)