Posted August 5, 2017 9:22 am by Comments

By Brian Seay

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
A Justice Department rollback of an Obama-era decision to limit civil asset forfeiture is harmful to poor people, critics say.
Despite bipartisan opposition to forfeiture in recent years, Attorney General Jeff Sessions last month reversed a decision that limited the scope of so-called adoptive forfeiture.
Civil forfeiture allows law enforcement to seize money, cars and other property from people — with or without criminal charges filed — as long as the property is suspected of being connected to a crime.
In 2015, then-Attorney General Eric Holder scaled back an element of that: the Equitable Sharing Program. So-called “adoptive forfeiture” allows state and local agencies to sidestep local restrictions on forfeiture by allowing the federal government to “adopt” the seized property, take a cut, and give back the rest.
“State and local agencies have 30 calendar days from the date the property is seized to request a federal adoption,” says a 63-page “Guide to Equitable Sharing” from April 2009.
“I am asking Department attorneys to proceed with an abundance of caution when handling all forfeitures involving vehicles and especially residences,” said Sessions in announcing the renewal of adoptive forfeiture. “If we operate this program in a careful and responsible way, something I believe

Source: Guns.com

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