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We are working to end civil forfeiture on the federal, state and local levels. Sign up to stay up to date on how you can participate in legislative and grassroots efforts to help end civil forfeiture.
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Support the FAIR Act Today!
Federal civil forfeiture laws allow the government to take cash, cars, homes and other property suspected of being involved in criminal activity. Unlike criminal forfeiture, the property owner doesn’t have to be charged with, let alone convicted of, a crime to permanently lose his property. Worse, law enforcement agencies get to keep what they take to pad their own budgets.
This is wrong.
But we can change that. The FAIR Act, H.R. 1525, reforms this practice by: Prohibiting federal law enforcement from keeping forfeiture proceeds, thereby ending the financial incentive to “police for profit”; Ending the federal “equitable sharing” program, which allows state and local law enforcement to partner with the feds to keep up to 80% of forfeiture proceeds; Implements important protections to ensure property owners get their fair day in court. Learn more about how exactly the FAIR Act protects your property rights here.
Our Goal:
End Civil Forfeiture
We are the Institute for Justice, a non-profit civil liberties law firm that defends private property rights across the country.
The Institute for Justice aims to curtail, and ultimately, abolish civil forfeiture, one of the gravest abuses of power in the country today. IJ has filed more than two dozen cases challenging civil forfeiture nationwide. In 2019, IJ secured a landmark victory at the U.S. Supreme Court when it ruled unanimously in Timbs v. Indiana that the Eight Amendment’s Excessive Fines Clause protects Americans against state and local forfeitures.