R Tamara de Silva

The most powerful argument against civil forfeiture however, is that is constitutes a wholesale assault on the very few constitutional safeguards we have been given and that form the bedrock of what freedom has come to mean as Americans. Our law guarantees the right to be held innocent until proven guilty. The right to have guilt proven beyond reasonable doubt in matters where we may be held to have violated the criminal law. The right to be free from unreasonable seizure and to be guaranteed due process of law. We are also guaranteed the right to be free of excessive and disproportionate punishment. In other words our rights under the Fourth, Fifth, Fourteenth and Eighth Amendments stand wholly at odds against the practice of civil forfeiture.