Law Commons^™

Defining Excessiveness: Applying The Eighth Amendment To Civil Forfeiture After Austin V. United States, Sarah N. Welling, Medrith Lee Hager

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

In 1971, agents of the federal government seized a $20,000 yaught after finding a small quantity of marijuana on board. Ten years later government agents confiscated a twenty-eight foot boat that held drugs consisting of one marijuana twig and two marijuana leaves. Since then, the government has taken possession of a $250,000 home because a drug transaction occurred in a car parked in the driveway and of a smaller dwelling because the owner used the telephone inside to set up a drug deal at another location. In another incident, local, county, state, and federal agents shot and killed the owner …